El Lissitzky Chronology
1890
Lazar Markovich (El) Lissitzky born on November 23 to a Jewish family in Pochinok,
Smolensk Province, Russia.
1903
Takes lessons with the artist Iurii (Yehuda) Moiseevich Pen in Vitebsk.
1909
Turned down by the St. Petersburg Academy of Art. Enrolls as a student of
architectural engineering at the Technische Hochschule in Darmstadt, Germany.
1912
Travels in Germany, France, and Italy.
1914
Returns to Russia during the summer, after the outbreak of World War I.
1915–1916
Works in various architectural offices in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
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1916
Receives a diploma in engineering and architecture from the Riga Technological
University, which is temporarily quartered in Moscow. Embarks on an expedition
organized by the Jewish Historical and Ethnographic Society to explore the synagogues
along Russia’s Dnieper River.
1917–1919
Lives and works in Kiev. Participates in a national movement to revive Jewish cultural
traditions for modern Russian Jews. Designs Yiddish books, some for children.
1918
Becomes a member of IZO Narkompros (Art Section of the People’s Commissariat for
Enlightenment) in Moscow.
1919
Helps found in Kiev the Yiddish publishing house Kultur Lige, which becomes a
leading force in the dissemination of Jewish culture in the Ukraine. Invited in May by
Marc Chagall to teach graphic arts, printing, and architecture at the People’s Art School
in Vitebsk. Introduced to Kazimir Malevich’s system of nonobjective art, Suprematism,
after Malevich arrives in Vitebsk in November to teach painting. Works in the
Suprematist collective UNOVIS (Affirmers of the New Art), along with Malevich and
other artists. Participates in decorating Vitebsk for the revolutionary holidays.
1920
Invents the term Proun (Project for the Affirmation of the New) for his new form of
abstract art.
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1921
Returns to Moscow. Teaches architecture at the recently established art school
VKhUTEMAS (State Higher Artistic and Technical Workshops). Delivers a series of four
lectures at INKhUK (Institute of Artistic Culture) on the topics of new art, Communism
and Suprematism, monumental art, and the new city. Travels to Berlin via Warsaw
during the fall on a mission to establish cultural contacts between Soviet and German
artists.
1922
Collaborates with the Russian writer Ilya Ehrenburg to produce the periodical Veshch.
Objet. Gegenstand. Meets the typographer Jan Tschichold. In May, participates in the
First Congress of Progressive Artists in Düsseldorf. In September, takes part in the
Congress of Constructivists and Dadaists in Weimar, where he meets the Dada artist
Kurt Schwitters. In October, meets Sophie Küppers, widow of Dr. Paul Erich Küppers,
who had been the assistant to the director of the Kestner Society in Hanover. In
December, gives an important lecture in Berlin on Russian art.
1923
Lectures on Soviet art in Rotterdam, Utrecht, and The Hague and at the Kestner Society.
Becomes seriously ill with tuberculosis and is treated in Switzerland. Joins the editorial
board of Hans Richter’s journal G and becomes a member of the De Stijl group.
Becomes a member of ASNOVA (Association of the New Architects), an organization
founded in Moscow by Nikolai Ladovsky, Nikolai Dokuchaev, and Vladimir Krinsky,
and assumes responsibility for developing connections with foreign architects.
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1924
With Mart Stam and Emil Roth, edits the architectural review ABC: Beiträge zum
Bauen. Produces advertising designs for Gunther Wagner’s Pelikan office supply
company. With the technical help of Roth, begins work on the Wolkenbügel (CloudIron), a horizontally expanding skyscraper intended for the Nikitsky Square in
Moscow. In November, the Swiss authorities turn down his request to renew his visa,
but grant him a six-month extension “on humanitarian grounds.”
1925
Returns to Moscow in June.
1926
In January, appointed head of the Department of Furniture and Interior Design for the
wood and metal workshop at VKhUTEMAS. In June, receives assignment from
Narkompros to travel to Dresden, Rotterdam, Utrecht, Hamburg, and Lübeck to study
modern architecture. Commissioned by the directorate of the International Art
Exhibition in Dresden to design the Room for Constructivist Art. Returns to Moscow
and, in collaboration with Ladovsky, publishes the single issue of the architectural
review ASNOVA.
1927
Marries Sophie Küppers on January 27. Appointed chief artist for the All-Union
Printing Trades Exhibition in Moscow. Begins work on the design of the Abstract
Cabinet for the Provinzialmuseum (Sprengel Museum) in Hanover.
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1928
Appointed chief artist for the Soviet Pavilion at the International Press Exhibition in
Cologne. Meets with Piet Mondrian, Fernand Léger, and Le Corbusier while on
vacation in Austria and Paris.
1929
Commissioned by the All-Union Society for Foreign Cultural Exchange to construct the
Soviet Room at the Film and Photo Exhibition in Stuttgart.
1930
Takes part in the competition to design the House of Heavy Industry. Appointed chief
artist for the Soviet Pavilion at the International Hygiene Exhibition in Dresden.
Commissioned to design the Soviet section at the International Fur Trade Exhibition in
Leipzig. His son, Jen Lissitzky, is born on October 12.
1931
Appointed chief architect for the Gorky Park of Culture and Rest in Moscow in March.
Sophie’s older sons come to Russia to live with her and Lissitzky in the village of
Khodnya, thirty miles from Moscow.
1932
Signs his first contract with the editors of USSR in Construction, a Soviet propaganda
publication intended for Western audiences and published in Russian, English,
German, and French. Becomes one of the principal artists for the journal, along with
Aleksandr Rodchenko, Varvara Stepanova, and Solomon Telingater. Designs seventeen
issues, ten of them in collaboration with Sophie Küppers.
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1934
Appointed chief artist for the Agricultural Exhibition of the Soviet Union in Moscow.
1935–1936
Frequently hospitalized. Convalesces in a sanatorium in the Caucasus.
1940
Appointed chief artist for the Soviet Pavilion at the Belgrade International Exhibition, a
project left unfinished due to the outbreak of World War II.
1941
Works on anti-Nazi posters and other war-related projects until his death in Moscow on
December 30.
—Compiled by Ekaterina Yudina
http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/digital/lissitzky/
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