El Lissitzky, a Russian artist, designer, photographer, typographer and architect was important during the Russian Suprematism. He designed many works alongside his mentor, Kazimir Malevich (founded this arts movement). These works displayed propaganda and displays for exhibition. His works changed the way one experiments with materials and production techniques, which later influenced the Bauhaus and carries on to 20th century graphic design. He innovated change in producing photomontage, book production, and typographic exhibitions. El Lissitzky believed that artwork and artists could be used to change surrounding environments. Being of Jewish origin, he created books in order to help spread and share his culture through Russia. During this time, Russia was going through many changes.
His artworks, like many during this time were focused on basic geometric forms in limited colors and abstraction. Centered and based around right angles and grids. Text were often also placed at an angle. This different from the classic art usually based on what we see (Prouns: establishment for New Art). El Lissitzky’s piece “Beat the White with the Red Wedge” was one his most popular posters. In the image, we see shapes of primarily white, black and some grey. These simple composition is broken by a large red triangle placed in the center of the frame. This was said to symbolize the environment in this time period- the bolsheviks fighting their opponents during Russian Civil War.
This helping begin the Constructivist movement. His works similar to these helped spread that art is not only what you see, but also can spread an idea or phase through simple shapes and forms.
Hannah Höch (1889-1978) was a photomontage artist most distinguished for her role in the Berlin Dada movement and her innovative techniques with photomontage. Her politically charged satirical collages ridiculed the failings of the Weimar government, but also fed into the early feminist movement, opposing stereotypical gender roles, promoting women’s suffrage and empowering women to explore their own creativity in the applied arts. Hannah herself faced adversity and was marginalized as the only woman within the Dada movement, and was not treated as an equal contributor by her peers.
Her most famous piece, Cut With the Kitchen Knife Through the Last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch in Germany (1919-1920) was featured at the First International Dada Fair in 1920, and was favorably received. The piece is a dynamic collage of images cut out and pasted from newspapers and magazines, as well as some personal inclusions, such as the small image of Hausmann, and Lenin and Stalin, showing her inclinations toward communist parties at the time. The nonsensical fragmentation of images within the collage makes this piece quintessentially Dada, and the fragmentation itself acts as a microcosm for the breakdown of society and the government post-WWI. Cogs, wheels and various machinery eclipse around the image, symbolic of the government as “the machine,” as well as calling light to the industrialization and militarization that was transforming the European landscape.
'Course Design Matters 