El Lissitzky - Jewish as Universal: From Jewish Style to Pangeometry

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Статья опубликована в издании. Ars Judaica. 2007. (В файле 20 стр.).«Avant-garde oeuvre implies certain dualities. On the one hand, it attempts to present a new vision of the totality of the world, a rational proposal for the reconstruction of the world. On the other hand, it might imply refined symbolist play, full of direct, and especially hidden, references and quotations. Furthermore, the avant-garde oeuvre is intended to speak universally; yet, it contains diverse national, nationalistic, and even chauvinistic traits (the latter flourished during and immediately after World War I), which internally contradict its universalism from within. With regard to formative avant-garde dualities, El Lissitzky is a characteristic case. The enigmatic artist of the avant-garde epoch,1 he was both Jewish and universal, rationally-constructive and symbolically-enigmatic. He attempted to be universal while playing with sophisticated and hidden Jewish metaphors. He constructed the new worlds while speaking in specific and complicated symbolical language…»