Jewish POLISH SYNAGOGUES BOOK Judaica PAINTINGS Russian LISSITZKY AVANT GARD

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Jewish POLISH SYNAGOGUES BOOK Judaica PAINTINGS Russian LISSITZKY AVANT GARD:
$145.00

DESCRIPTION : Here for sale is a RICHLY ILLUSTRATED andPHOTOGRAPHED Jewish book regarding the WALL PAINTINGS of POLISH SYNAGOGUES of POLAND which waspublishedaround 45 years ago in Israel. The book \"WALL PAINTINGS of SYNAGOGUES in POLAND\" by David Davidovitch was published ( First and only edition ) in Jerusalem Israel 1968. A painting by the Jewish Russian Avant Garde artist EL LISSITZKY , Copying an original wall painting being the FRONTISPIECE of this rare book. Thisbeautiful book , Brings more ADDITIONAL illustratedand photographed INFO which the Piechotca\'s legendary book was unable to provide - namelyPHTOS of SYNAGOGUES which were based on numerous various sources . This book combines EXQUISITE wooden and stone architecture of utmostbeauty and originalitywith the Jewish WORSHIP of GOD and Jewishtradition. MOST if not all these Polish Synagogues were destructed and burnt during the HOLOCAUST. The book is throughout PHOTOGRAPHED and ILLUSTRATED , NumerousSYNAGOGUES , All detailed with LOCATIONS and SPECIFICATIONS .HEBREW . Long out of print and quitesought after. Original HC with cloth spine. Original ILLUSTRATED chromo DJ . 116 throughout photographed and illustrated pp plus 30 chromophotographed plates.9.5 x 7\" . Very good condition. Perfectly clean . HC slightly faded. Tiny tears in DJ. ( Please look at scan foractual AS IS images ) . Book will be sent protected inside a rigidprotective envelope . PAYMENTS : Payment method accepted : Paypal .SHIPPMENT : Shipp worldwide viaregistered airmail is $ 17 .Book will be sent inside a protective envelope . Handling within 3-5 days after payment. Estimated duration 14 days.

Wooden synagogues are an original style of Synagogue architecture that developed in the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth. A unique Jewish artistic and architectural form The wooden synagogue was \"an original architectural genre\" that drew on several models, including Poland\'s wooden building traditions and central plan, masonry synagogues in which four massive masonry pillars that define the Bimah rise to support the roof vaulting.[3] Central pillars support the vaulting of only a handful of wooden synagogues. Instead, in wooden synagogues the vaulting and domes are suspended by elaborate roof trusses. Common features shared by wooden synagogues include the independence of the pitched roof from the design of the interior domed ceiling. The outside of a wooden synagogue gave no hint of the domes and multiple, Baroque vaults that would be found within. The exteriors were decidedly plain, giving no hint of the riot of carving, painting, domes, balconies and vaulting inside. The architectural interest of the exterior lay in the large scale of the buildings, the multiple, horizontal lines of the tiered roofs, and the carved corbels that supported them. The elaborate domed and vaulted ceilings were known as raki\'a (Hebrew for sky or firmament) and were often painted blue sprinkled with stars. The Bimah was always placed in the center of the room. Wooden synagogues featured a single, large hall. In contrast to contemporary churches, there was no apse. Moreover, while contemporary churches featured imposing vestibules, the entry porches of the wooden synagogues was a low annex, usually with a simple lean-to roof. In these synagogues, the emphasis was on constructing a single, large, high-domed worship space.According to art historian Stephen S. Kayser, the wooden synagogues of Poland with their painted and carved interiors were “a truly original and organic manifestation of artistic expression—the only real Jewish folk art in history.”According to Louis Lozowick, writing in 1947, the wooden synagogues were unique because, unlike all previous synagogues, they were not built in the architectural style of their region and era, but in a newly evolved and uniquely Jewish style, making them \"a truly original folk expression,\" whose \"originality does not lie alone in the exterior architecture, it lies equally in the beautiful and intricate wood carving of the interior.\"[7]Moreover, while in many parts of the world Jews were proscribed from entering the building trades and even from practicing the decorative arts of painting and woodcarving, the wooden synagogues were actually built by Jewish craftsmen.The interior vaulting of the Wolpa Synagogue is described by art historians Maria and Kazimierz Piechotka as having been \"the most magnificent of all known wooden ceilings\" in Europe. [9] Of course, since Christians were free to build with brick and stone, few European buildings of the scale of the Wolpa synagogue were ever built in wood. The walls of the main hall were 7.2 meters high. The vaulting, under a three-tiered roof, rose to a height of fourteen meters in three tiers marked by fancy balustrades. Each tier was made up of several curving sections faced in wooden paneling to form a graceful, tiered and vaulted dome. The vaulted ceiling was supported by the four wooden corner columns that rose form the bimah, and by trusses in the roof.Art historian Ori Z. Soltes points out that the wooden synagogues, unusual for that period in being large, identifiably Jewish buildings not hidden in courtyards or behind walls, were built not only during a Jewish \"intellectual golden age\" but in a time and place where \"the local Jewish population was equal to or even greater than the Christian population. History According to Maria and Kazimierz Piechotka, the wooden synagogue style developed in the century between the mid-sixteenth and mid-seventh centuries, a period of peace and prosperity for the Polish-Lithuanian Jewish community. In addition to Poland and Lithuania, wooden synagogues are found in modern Belarus and the Ukraine. Wood was abundant and inexpensive in the heavily forested commonwealth, but a large part of the motivation for building in wood rather than masonry was the great difficulty of obtaining government permission to erect masonry synagogues.[12] The wooden synagogues, which featured multi-layered high roofs, multi-beamed domes, galleries, wooden balconies and arches were built to high standards of craftsmanship.[13] Interior decoration The interiors were decorated with wall and ceiling paintings that, in many cases, covered the walls and ceilings entirely, and with elaborately carved wooden Torah Arks.[14][15][16] Thomas Hubka has traced the style of decorative painting in the wooden synagogues to the medieval Hebrew illuminated manuscripts of Ashkenazi Jewry.[17] The intricate wooden decoration of the barrel vaulted ceiling of the Przedbórz Synagogue was considered so beautiful that before the Second World War it drew tourists to the small village of Przedbórz.[18] Regional variations Architectural historian Rachel Wischnitzer has traced regional variations in wooden synagogue style. The interiors of the wooden synagogues of Lithuania were not as exuberantly painted as were synagogues of other regions. Instead, Lithuanian synagogues were notable for architectural details such as ceilings with the boards laid in decorative herringbone patterns. Several Lithuanian synagogues featured corner pavilions. The wooden synagogues of Galicia were notable for their elaborate wall paintings.[1] Influence on art and architecture Frank Stella\'s Polish village series draws on images of Wooden synagogues published by Maria and Kazimierz Piechotkain in their 1957 book, Wooden synagogues. [19] The Sons of Israel Synagogue, by architects Davis, Brody and Wisniewski, in Lakewood, New Jersey evokes Polish wooden synagogues in modern materials in the shape of its roof.[19] The Temple B\'rith Kodesh in Rochester, New York, by architect Pietro Belluschi is roofed with a domed wooden drum intended to evoke the wooden synagogues of Poland. [19] The modern building of Congregation Beth Shalom Rodfe Zedek in Chester, Connecticut was designed by artist Sol LeWitt who conceptualized the \"airy\" synagogue building, with its shallow dome supported by \"exuberant wooden roof beams\" an homage to the Wooden synagogues of Eastern Europe.[20][21] Surviving wooden synagogues Although it was long thought that none of the wooden synagogues survived the destruction of the First and Second World Wars, it is now known that a number do survive, albeit only of the smaller type.[22][23] List of towns with identified extant wooden synagogues Pakruojis (Polish: Pokrój), the largest of the wooden synagogues that survives in present day Lithuania (built 1801), now in deteriorating condition [23][24] Tirkšliai [23] Seda (Polish: Siady), built in early 20th century [23][25] Žiežmariai (Polish: Żyżmory), in deteriorating condition [23][26] Telšiai (Polish: Telsze), built in 19th century, vacated around 1940 [23][27] Kurkliai (Polish: Kurkle), in Soviet times used as barn, now in deteriorating condition [23][28] Alanta, built in late 19th century, in deteriorating condition [23][29][30] Rozalimas (Polish: Rozalin), built in 19th century [23][31] Kaltinėnai (in Commonwealth gmina Szyłele, Lithuanian: Šilalė)[23] Laukuva [23] Plungė (Polish: Płungiany)[23] Veisiejai (Polish: Wiejsieje)[23] Trakai (Polish: Troki), a Karaite synagogue called Kenesa built in 18th century, with altar (Torah Ark) and interior preserved in good condition [23][32] ******** Polish Wooden Synagogues To many people, the Polish Wooden Synagogue represents the only indigenous Jewish architecture, that is, a style of folk architecture that is both unique to the Jews, and not primarily adapted from something else. The wooden synagogues in Poland were entirely destroyed in WWII, although a handful seem to have survived in Lithuania, Ukraine, and perhaps Belarus. (Some of these have been discovered only recently, as when a barn was explored in detail, and its roots as a synagogue were uncovered by Albert Barry in 1999.) M. & K. Piechotka [1959] trace the development of the wooden synagogue, and document about seventy of them in detail ranging from one illustration to sixteen. 47 others are identified on a map. The Piechotkas\' map shows the synagogues as having ranged from Kornik and Cieszowa on the west, past Kiev on the east (Kozin and Makoshino). Perhaps it is more accurate to say that\'s the range in which the Institute of Polish Architecture documented synagogues. For example, the first synagogues built in Siberia were probably wooden as well.For about 45 years, their 1959 Wooden Synagogues book was the most detailed and comprehensive English-language work on the subject. However it has been superceded by their 2004 book, Heaven\'s Gates, in English. The text has been expanded, the book reorganized, and the illustrations have been greatly improved, presumably through painstaking work with modern computer software such as Photoshop™. This documentation is only possible because the Institute of Polish Architecture of the Polytechnic of Warsaw had started documenting the synagogues in 1923 or shortly thereafter. Importantly, even though the Institute was destroyed in 1944, much of the archives were successfully hidden from the Nazis during WWII, and recovered soon thereafter. (The rest is lost forever, along with the synagogues themselves.) According to the Piechotkas, most of the original synagogue documentation and photography was done by Szymon Zajczyk, who perished in the holocaust on 27 May 1944. (His photo, on the right, is from the Piechotka 1996 book.) The Piechotkas trace both the development of the Jewish Community in Poland and the development of synagogue architecture. Some commonly seen features were: A very ornate raised bimah (platform from which the torah and prayers are read) with a high canopy above it. A women\'s section at the side, in a balcony, or both. Interior decoration that was often, but by no means always, quite ornate, with very complex and professional carvings, especially on the bimah and ark. Interiors that were often fully and ornately painted with colorful decorations, often very professionally done. Some synagogues were painted in a more folksy style. Although there were large wooden churches, the wooden synagogues were unique in having large spans essentially spanning the entire width of the building without interior columns. The synagogues were usually on a street heading away from the main church in town. In Przedbórz, for example, the church is up on a hill above the town square; the synagogue is down by the river, on the opposite side of the square. See them on the town map. Read more about Przedbórz\'s Wooden Synagogue. See 34 of Moshe Verbin\'s wooden synagogue models. (You have to scroll way down the page to see the model thumbnails. Click on a small picture to get to the larger pictures. The page includes various additional historical comments by the Piechotkas and others.) Read about Albert Barry\'s synagogue video, available from Florida Atlantic University in English, Hebrew or Yiddish, with narration by Theodore Bikel. Lazar Markovich Lissitzky (Russian: Ла́зарь Ма́ркович Лиси́цкий, listen (help·info)) (November 23 [O.S. November 11] 1890 – December 30, 1941), better known as El Lissitzky (Russian: Эль Лиси́цкий, Yiddish: על ליסיצקי‎), was a Russian artist, designer, photographer, typographer, polemicist and architect. He was an important figure of the Russian Avant Garde, helping develop suprematism with his mentor, Kazimir Malevich, and designing numerous exhibition displays and propaganda works for the Soviet Union. His work greatly influenced the Bauhaus and constructivist movements, and he experimented with production techniques and stylistic devices that would go on to dominate 20th-century graphic design.[1] Lissitzky\'s entire career was laced with the belief that the artist could be an agent for change, later summarized with his edict, \"das zielbewußte Schaffen\" (goal-oriented creation).[2] Lissitzky, of Lithuanian Jewish оrigin, began his career illustrating Yiddish children\'s books in an effort to promote Jewish culture in Russia, a country that was undergoing massive change at the time and that had just repealed its antisemitic laws. When only 15 he started teaching; a duty he would stay with for most of his life. Over the years, he taught in a variety of positions, schools, and artistic media, spreading and exchanging ideas. He took this ethic with him when he worked with Malevich in heading the suprematist art group UNOVIS, when he developed a variant suprematist series of his own, Proun, and further still in 1921, when he took up a job as the Russian cultural ambassador to Weimar Germany, working with and influencing important figures of the Bauhaus and De Stijl movements during his stay. In his remaining years he brought significant innovation and change to typography, exhibition design, photomontage, and book design, producing critically respected works and winning international acclaim for his exhibition design. This continued until his deathbed, where in 1941 he produced one of his last works – a Soviet propaganda poster rallying the people to construct more tanks for the fight against Nazi Germany. In 2014, the heirs of the artist, in collaboration with Van abbemuseum and the leading worldwide scholars, the Lissitzky foundation was established, to preserve the artist\'s legacy and preparing a catalogue raisonné of the artist oeuvre. Contents 1 Early years2 Avant Garde 2.1 Suprematism2.2 Proun2.3 Return to Germany2.4 Horizontal skyscrapers 3 Exhibitions of the 1920s4 Later years5 Gallery of work6 Notes7 References8 External links Early years Lissitzky was born on November 23, 1890 in Pochinok, a small Jewish community 50 kilometres (31 mi) southeast of Smolensk, former Russian Empire. During his childhood, he lived and studied in the city of Vitebsk, now part of Belarus, and later spent 10 years in Smolensk living with his grandparents and attending the Smolensk Grammar School, spending summer vacations in Vitebsk.[3] Always expressing an interest and talent in drawing, he started to receive instruction at 13 from Yehuda Pen, a local Jewish artist, and by the time he was 15 was teaching students himself. In 1909, he applied to an art academy in Saint Petersburg, but was rejected. While he passed the entrance exam and was qualified, the law under the Tsarist regime only allowed a limited number of Jewish students to attend Russian schools and universities. Like many other Jews then living in the Russian Empire, Lissitzky went to study in Germany. He left in 1909 to study architectural engineering at a Technische Hochschule in Darmstadt, Germany.[1] During the summer of 1912, Lissitzky, in his own words, \"wandered through Europe\", spending time in Paris and covering 1,200 kilometres (750 mi) on foot in Italy, teaching himself about fine art and sketching architecture and landscapes that interested him.[4] His interest in ancient Jewish culture had originated during the contacts with a Paris-based group of Russian Jews led by sculptor Ossip Zadkine, a lifetime friend of Lissitzky since early childhood, who exposed Lissitzky to conflicts between different groups within the diaspora.[5] Also in 1912 some of his pieces were included for the first time in an exhibit by the St. Petersburg Artists Union; a notable first step. He remained in Germany until the outbreak of World War I, when he was forced to return home through Switzerland and the Balkans,[6] along with many of his countrymen, including other expatriate artists born in the former Russian Empire, such as Wassily Kandinsky and Marc Chagall.[1] Upon his return to Moscow, Lissitzky attended the Polytechnic Institute of Riga, which had been evacuated to Moscow because of the war,[7] and worked for the architectural firms of Boris Velikovsky and Roman Klein.[6] During this work, he took an active and passionate interest in Jewish culture which, after the downfall of the openly antisemitic Tsarist regime, was experiencing a renaissance. The new Provisional Government repealed a decree that prohibited the printing of Hebrew letters and that barred Jews from citizenship. Thus Lissitzky soon devoted himself to Jewish art, exhibiting works by local Jewish artists, traveling to Mahilyow to study the traditional architecture and ornaments of old synagogues, and illustrating many Yiddish children\'s books. These books were Lissitzky\'s first major foray in book design, a field that he would greatly innovate during his career. Lissitzky\'s The Constructor, 1924, London, Victoria & Albert Museum His first designs appeared in the 1917 book, Sihas hulin: Eyne fun di geshikhten (An Everyday Conversation), where he incorporated Hebrew letters with a distinctly art nouveau flair. His next book was a visual retelling of the traditional Jewish Passover song Had gadya (One Goat), in which Lissitzky showcased a typographic device that he would often return to in later designs. In the book, he integrated letters with images through a system that matched the color of the characters in the story with the word referring to them. In the designs for the final page, Lissitzky depicts the mighty \"hand of God\" slaying the angel of death, who wears the tsar\'s crown. This representation links the redemption of the Jews with the victory of the Bolsheviks in the Russian Revolution.[8] An alternative view asserts that the artist was wary of Bolshevik internationalization, leading to destruction of traditional Jewish culture.[9] Visual representations of the hand of God would recur in numerous pieces throughout his entire career, most notably with his 1924[10] photomontage self-portrait The Constructor, which prominently featured the hand. Avant Garde Suprematism Proun. 1st Kestner Portfolio In May 1919,[3] upon receiving an invitation from fellow Jewish artist Marc Chagall, Lissitzky returned to Vitebsk to teach graphic arts, printing, and architecture at the newly formed People\'s Art School – a school that Chagall created after being appointed Commissioner of Artistic Affairs for Vitebsk in 1918. Lissitzky was engaged in designing and printing propaganda posters; later, he preferred to keep quiet about this period, probably because one of main subjects of these posters was the exile Leon Trotsky.[11] The quantity of these posters is sufficient to regard them as a separate genre in the artist\'s output.[12] Chagall also invited other Russian artists, most notably the painter and art theoretician Kazimir Malevich and Lissitzky\'s former teacher, Yehuda Pen. However, it was not until October 1919 when Lissitzky, then on an errand in Moscow, persuaded Malevich to relocate to Vitebsk.[13] The move coincided with the opening of the first art exhibition in Vitebsk directed by Chagall.[14] Malevich would bring with him a wealth of new ideas, most of which inspired Lissitzky but clashed with local public and professionals who favored figurative art and with Chagall himself.[15] After going through impressionism, primitivism, and cubism, Malevich began developing and advocating his ideas on suprematism aggressively. In development since 1915, suprematism rejected the imitation of natural shapes and focused more on the creation of distinct, geometric forms. He replaced the classic teaching program with his own and disseminated his suprematist theories and techniques school-wide. Chagall advocated more classical ideals and Lissitzky, still loyal to Chagall, became torn between two opposing artistic paths. Lissitzky ultimately favoured Malevich\'s suprematism and broke away from traditional Jewish art. Chagall left the school shortly thereafter. Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge, 1919 At this point Lissitzky subscribed fully to suprematism and, under the guidance of Malevich, helped further develop the movement. In 1919–1920 Lissitzky was a head of Architectural department at the People\'s Art School where with his students, primarily Lazar Khidekel, he was working on transition from plane to volumetric suprematism.[16] Lissitzky designed On the New System of Art by Malevich, who responded in December 1919: \"Lazar Markovich, I salute you on the publication of this little book\".[17] Perhaps the most famous work by Lissitzky from the same period was the 1919 propaganda poster \"Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge\". Russia was going through a civil war at the time, which was mainly fought between the \"Reds\" (communists and revolutionaries) and the \"Whites\" (monarchists, conservatives, liberals and socialists who opposed the Bolshevik Revolution). The image of the red wedge shattering the white form, simple as it was, communicated a powerful message that left no doubt in the viewer\'s mind of its intention. The piece is often seen as alluding to the similar shapes used on military maps and, along with its political symbolism, was one of Lissitzky\'s first major steps away from Malevich\'s non-objective suprematism into a style his own. He stated: \"The artist constructs a new symbol with his brush. This symbol is not a recognizable form of anything that is already finished, already made, or already existent in the world – it is a symbol of a new world, which is being built upon and which exists by the way of the people.\"[18] In January 17, 1920,[19] Malevich and Lissitzky co-founded the short-lived Molposnovis (Young followers of a new art), a proto-suprematist association of students, professors, and other artists. After a brief and stormy dispute between \"old\" and \"young\" generations, and two rounds of renaming, the group reemerged as UNOVIS (Exponents of the new art) in February.[20][21] Under the leadership of Malevich the group worked on a \"suprematist ballet\", choreographed by Nina Kogan and on the remake of a 1913 futurist opera Victory Over the Sun by Mikhail Matyushin and Aleksei Kruchenykh.[20][22] Lissitzky and the entire group chose to share credit and responsibility for the works produced within the group, signing most pieces with a black square. This was partly a homage to a similar piece by their leader, Malevich, and a symbolic embrace of the Communist ideal. This would become the de facto seal of UNOVIS that took the place of individual names or initials. Black squares worn by members as chest badges and cufflinks also resembled the ritual tefillin and thus were no strange symbol in Vitebsk shtetl.[23] The group, which disbanded in 1922, would be pivotal in the dissemination of suprematist ideology in Russia and abroad and launch Lissitzky\'s status as one of the leading figures in the avant garde. Incidentally, the earliest appearance of the signature Lissitzky (Russian: Эль Лисицкий) emerged in the handmade UNOVIS Miscellany, issued in two copies in March–April 1920,[24] and containing his manifesto on book art: \"the book enters the skull through the eye not the ear therefore the pathways the waves move at much greater speed and with more intensity. if i (sic) can only sing through my mouth with a book i (sic) can show myself in various guises.\"[25] Proun A Proun, c.1925. Commenting on Proun in 1921, Lissitzky stated, \"We brought the canvas into circles . . . and while we turn, we raise ourselves into the space.\"[8] During this period Lissitzky proceeded to develop a suprematist style of his own, a series of abstract, geometric paintings which he called Proun (pronounced \"pro-oon\"). The exact meaning of \"Proun\" was never fully revealed, with some suggesting that it is a contraction of proekt unovisa (designed by UNOVIS) or proekt utverzhdenya novogo (Design for the confirmation of the new). Later, Lissitzky defined them ambiguously as \"the station where one changes from painting to architecture.\"[4] Proun was essentially Lissitzky\'s exploration of the visual language of suprematism with spatial elements, utilizing shifting axes and multiple perspectives; both uncommon ideas in suprematism. Suprematism at the time was conducted almost exclusively in flat, 2D forms and shapes, and Lissitzky, with a taste for architecture and other 3D concepts, tried to expand suprematism beyond this. His Proun works (known as Prounen) spanned over a half a decade and evolved from straightforward paintings and lithographs into fully three-dimensional installations. They would also lay the foundation for his later experiments in architecture and exhibition design. While the paintings were artistic in their own right, their use as a staging ground for his early architectonic ideas was significant. In these works, the basic elements of architecture – volume, mass, color, space and rhythm – were subjected to a fresh formulation in relation to the new suprematist ideals. Through his Prouns, utopian models for a new and better world were developed. This approach, in which the artist creates art with socially defined purpose, could aptly be summarized with his edict \"das zielbewußte Schaffen\" – \"task oriented creation.\"[2] Jewish themes and symbols also sometimes made appearances in his Prounen, usually with Lissitzky using Hebrew letters as part of the typography or visual code. For the cover of the 1922 book Arba\'ah Teyashim (Four Billy Goats; cover), he shows an arrangement of Hebrew letters as architectural elements in a dynamic design that mirrors his contemporary Proun typography.[8] This theme was extended into his illustrations for the Shifs-Karta (Passenger Ticket) book. Return to Germany International Congress of Progressive Artists, May 1922, Lissitzky 9th from left In 1921, roughly concurrent with the demise of UNOVIS, suprematism was beginning to fracture into two ideologically adverse halves, one favoring Utopian, spiritual art and the other a more utilitarian art that served society. Lissitzky was fully aligned with neither and left Vitebsk in 1921. He took a job as a cultural representative of Russia and moved to Berlin where he was to establish contacts between Russian and German artists. There he also took up work as a writer and designer for international magazines and journals while helping to promote the avant-garde through various gallery shows. He started the very short-lived but impressive periodical Veshch-Gegenstand Objekt with Russian-Jewish writer Ilya Ehrenburg. This was intended to display contemporary Russian art to Western Europe. It was a wide-ranging pan-arts publication, mainly focusing on new suprematist and constructivist works, and was published in German, French and Russian.[26] In the first issue, Lissitzky wrote: We consider the triumph of the constructive method to be essential for our present. We find it not only in the new economy and in the development of the industry, but also in the psychology of our contemporaries of art. Veshch will champion constructive art, whose mission is not, after all, to embellish life, but to organize it.[2] During his stay Lissitzky also developed his career as a graphic designer with some historically important works such as the books Dlia Golossa (For the Voice), a collection of poems from Vladimir Mayakovsky, and Die Kunstismen (The Artisms) together with Jean Arp. In Berlin he also met and befriended many other artists, most notably Kurt Schwitters, László Moholy-Nagy, and Theo van Doesburg.[27] Together with Schwitters and van Doesburg, Lissitzky presented the idea of an international artistic movement under the guidelines of constructivism while also working with Kurt Schwitters on the issue Nasci (Nature) of the periodical Merz, and continuing to illustrate children\'s books. The year after the publication of his first Proun series in Moscow in 1921, Schwitters introduced Lissitzky to the Hanover gallery kestnergesellschaft, where he held his first solo exhibition. The second Proun series, printed in Hanover in 1923, was a success, utilizing new printing techniques.[26] Later on, he met Sophie Kuppers, who was the widow of Paul Kuppers, an art director of the kestnergesellschaft at which Lissitzky was showing, and whom he would marry in 1927. Horizontal skyscrapers In 1923–1925, Lissitzky proposed and developed the idea of horizontal skyscrapers (Wolkenbügel, \"cloud-irons\"). A series of eight such structures was intended to mark the major intersections of the Boulevard Ring in Moscow. Each Wolkenbügel was a flat three-story, 180-meter-wide L-shaped slab raised 50 meters above street level. It rested on three pylons (10×16×50 meters each), placed on three different street corners. One pylon extended underground, doubling as the staircase into a proposed subway station; two others provided shelter for ground-level tram stations.[28][29] Lissitzky argued that as long as humans cannot fly, moving horizontally is natural and moving vertically is not. Thus, where there is not sufficient land for construction, a new plane created in the air at medium altitude should be preferred to an American-style tower. These buildings, according to Lissitzky, also provided superior insulation and ventilation for their inhabitants.[30] The print shop designed by El Lissitzky, showing the least damaged south end of the building Lissitzky, aware of severe mismatch between his ideas and the existing urban landscape, experimented with different configurations of the horizontal surface and height-to-width ratios so that the structure appeared balanced visually (\"spatial balance is in the contrast of vertical and horizontal tensions\").[30] The raised platform was shaped in a way that each of its four facets looked distinctly different. Each tower faced the Kremlin with the same facet, providing a pointing arrow to pedestrians on the streets. All eight buildings were planned identically, so Lissitzky proposed color-coding them for easier orientation.[31] An illustration of the concept appeared on the front cover of Adolf Behne\'s book Der Moderne Zweckbau, and articles on it written by Lissitzky appeared in the Moscow-based architectural review ASNOVA News (journal of ASNOVA, the Association of New Architects) and in the German art journal Das Kunstblatt. After some time of creating \"paper architecture\" projects such as the Wolkenbügels he was hired to design an actual building in Moscow. Located at 55.777277°N 37.610828°E 17, 1st Samotechny Lane, it is Lissitzky\'s sole tangible work of architecture. It was commissioned in 1932 by Ogonyok magazine to be used as a print shop. In June 2007 the independent Russky Avangard foundation filed a request to list the building on the heritage register. In September 2007 the city commission (Moskomnasledie) approved the request and passed it to the city government for a final approval, which did not happen. In October 2008, the abandoned building was badly damaged by fire.[32] Exhibitions of the 1920s After two years of intensive work Lissitzky was taken ill with acute pneumonia in October 1923. A few weeks later he was diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis; in February 1924 he relocated to a Swiss sanatorium near Locarno.[33] He kept very busy during his stay, working on advertisement designs for Pelikan Industries (who in turn paid for his treatment), translating articles written by Malevich into German, and experimenting heavily in typographic design and photography. In 1925, after the Swiss government denied his request to renew his visa, Lissitzky returned to Moscow and began teaching interior design, metalwork, and architecture at VKhUTEMAS (State Higher Artistic and Technical Workshops), a post he would keep until 1930. He all but stopped his Proun works and became increasingly active in architecture and propaganda designs. In June 1926, Lissitzky left the country again, this time for a brief stay in Germany and the Netherlands. There he designed an exhibition room for the Internationale Kunstausstellung art show in Dresden and the Raum Konstruktive Kunst (Room for constructivist art) and Abstraktes Kabinett shows in Hanover, and perfected the 1925 Wolkenbügel concept in collaboration with Mart Stam.[33] In his autobiography (written in June 1941, and later edited and released by his wife), Lissitzky wrote, \"1926. My most important work as an artist begins: the creation of exhibitions.\"[4] Back in the USSR, Lissitzky designed displays for the official Soviet pavilions at the international exhibitions of the period, up to the 1939 New York World\'s Fair. One of his most notable exhibits was the All-Union Polygraphic Exhibit in Moscow in August–October 1927, where Lissitzky headed the design team for \"photography and photomechanics\" (i.e. photomontage) artists and the installation crew.[34] His work was perceived as radically new, especially when juxtaposed with the classicist designs of Vladimir Favorsky (head of the book art section of the same exhibition) and of the foreign exhibits. In the beginning of 1928, Lissitzky visited Cologne in preparation for the 1928 Pressa Show scheduled for April–May 1928. The state delegated Lissitzky to supervise the Soviet program; instead of building their own pavilion, the Soviets rented the existing central pavilion, the largest building on the fairground. To make full use of it, the Soviet program designed by Lissitsky revolved around the theme of a film show, with nearly continuous presentation of the new feature films, propagandist newsreels and early animation, on multiple screens inside the pavilion and on the open-air screens.[35] His work was praised for near absence of paper exhibits; \"everything moves, rotates, everything is energized\" (Russian: всё движется, заводится, Lissitzky also designed and managed on site less demanding exhibitions like the 1930 Hygiene show in Dresden.[37] Along with pavilion design, Lissitzky began experimenting with print media again. His work with book and periodical design was perhaps some of his most accomplished and influential. He launched radical innovations in typography and photomontage, two fields in which he was particularly adept. He even designed a photomontage birth announcement in 1930 for his recently born son, Jen. The image itself is seen as being another personal endorsement of the Soviet Union,[8] as it superimposed an image of the infant Jen over a factory chimney, linking Jen\'s future with his country\'s industrial progress. Around this time, Lissitzky\'s interest in book design escalated. In his remaining years, some of his most challenging and innovative works in this field would develop. In discussing his vision of the book, he wrote: In contrast to the old monumental art [the book] itself goes to the people, and does not stand like a cathedral in one place waiting for someone to approach . . . [The book is the] monument of the future.[2] He perceived books as permanent objects that were invested with power. This power was unique in that it could transmit ideas to people of different times, cultures, and interests, and do so in ways other art forms could not. This ambition laced all of his work, particularly in his later years. Lissitzky was devoted to the idea of creating art with power and purpose, art that could invoke change. Later years In 1932, Stalin closed down independent artists\' unions; former avant-garde artists had to adapt to the new climate or risk being officially criticised or even blacklisted. Lissitzky retained his reputation as the master of exhibition art and management into the late 1930s. His tuberculosis gradually reduced his physical abilities, and he was becoming more and more dependent on his wife in actual completion of his work.[38] In 1937, Lissitzky served as the lead decorator for the upcoming All-Union Agricultural Exhibition, reporting to the master planner Vyacheslav Oltarzhevsky but largely independent and highly critical of him. The project was plagued by delays and political interventions. By the end of 1937 the \"apparent simplicity\" of Lissitzky\'s artwork aroused the concerns of the political supervisors, and Lissitzky responded: \"The simpler the shape, the finer precision and quality of execution required... yet until now [the working crews] are instructed by the foremen (Oltarzhevsky and Korostashevsky), not the authors\" (i.e. Vladimir Shchuko, author of the Central Pavilion, and Lissitzky himself).[39] His artwork, as described in 1937 proposals, completely departed from the modernist art of the 1920s in favor of socialist realism. The iconic statue of Stalin in front of the central pavilion was proposed by Lissitzky personally: \"this will give the square its head and its face\" (Russian: Это должно дать площади и голову и лицо).[39] In June 1938, he was only one of seventeen professionals and managers responsible for the Central Pavilion;[40] in October 1938, he shared the responsibility for its Main Hall decoration with Vladimir Akhmetyev.[41] He simultaneously worked on the decoration of the Soviet pavilion for the 1939 New York World\'s Fair; the June 1938 commission considered Lissitzky\'s work along with nineteen other proposals and eventually rejected it.[42] Lissitzky\'s work on the USSR im Bau (USSR in construction) magazine took his experimentation and innovation with book design to an extreme. In issue #2 he included multiple fold-out pages, presented in concert with other folded pages that together produced design combinations and a narrative structure that was completely original. Each issue focused on a particular issue of the time – a new dam being built, constitutional reforms, Red Army progress and so on. In 1941, his tuberculosis worsened, but he continued to produce works, one of his last being a propaganda poster for Russia\'s efforts in World War II, titled \"Davaite pobolshe tankov!\" (Give us more tanks!) He died on December 30, 1941, in Moscow.