El Lissitzky
Pelikan Tinte

Public Domain

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Images(2)

Artist El LissitzkyRussian, 1890–1941

CultureRussian

Titles

Pelikan Tinte

Date1924

MediumGelatin silver print, photogram

DimensionsImage: 8 5/16 × 5 13/16 in. (21.1 × 14.7 cm)
Sheet: 9 1/8 × 6 11/16 in. (23.2 × 17 cm)
Mount: 12 1/8 × 10 1/16 in. (30.8 × 25.6 cm)

Credit LineMuseum purchase funded by the Caroline Wiess Law Accessions Endowment Fund, The Manfred Heiting Collection

Object number2002.1550

Not on view

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Department

Photography

Special Collections

Manfred Heiting Collection of Photography

Object Type

PHOTOGRAPHS

DescriptionEl Lissitzky designed this advertisement for Pelikan Ink during an extended four-year stay in Germany. In these years, he introduced a disbelieving public to the radical art of Russian Constructivism and connected with local artists like Kurt Schwitters, a Dadaist based in Hanover. Their friendship was strengthened by a shared commitment to graphic design reform. Hanover-based Pelikan Ink was an ideal client for Schwitters and Lissitzky; its product catered to artists, so the firm wanted its advertisements to embody the newest artistic innovations. Lissitzky’s photogram combines the stylish abstraction and minimal presentation that German audiences liked with text elements to convey the marketing message. Advertisements like this one, and the one by Edmund Kesting shown below, helped bring abstraction into the mainstream.
ProvenanceEx-collection Jan Tschichold, Basel; [Galerie Berinson, Berlin]; purchased by Manfred Heiting, April 15, 1987; purchased by MFAH, 2002.
Exhibition History"Anwesenheit durch Abwesenheit - Fotogramme und die Kunst des 20. Jahrhundert", Kunsthaus Zürich, 1990.

"Licht Seiten - Die schönsten Bilder aus der Photographischen Sammlung der Berlinischen Galerie", Berlinische Galerie, Berlin, 1998.

“Shadows on the Wall: Cameraless Photography from 1851 to Today” The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, August 31– November 30, 2014.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks

Inscribed on mount recto in pencil:
El Lissitzky 1924: Photoplakat (Photogramm).
Originalgröße

Inscribed on mount recto in pencil:
Zurück an
den Eigentümer:

Printed on label adjacent to inscription:
Jan Tschichold,
Wettstein-Allee 15,
Basel [Schweiz]

Inscribed on mount recto in pencil:
Darf keinesfalls retuschiert werden.

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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