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New Man (Neuer)

El Lissitzky

European Art

After seeing a 1920 production of Victory over the Sun, a Russian Futurist opera by Aleksei Kruchenykh and Mikhail Matyushin with costumes and set designs by Kazimir Malevich, the avant-garde artist El Lissitzky was inspired to restage it entirely with mechanical puppets, or automatons. The performance was not realized, but he published a portfolio of ten large lithographs depicting his vision for the main characters. His vocabulary of abstracted architectonic forms shows the influence of Suprematism, which rejected traditional perspectival illusionism in favor of geometric shapes floating against a white space.
MEDIUM Color lithograph on wove paper
DATES 1923
DIMENSIONS image: 12 × 12 1/2 in. (30.5 × 31.8 cm) sheet: 21 1/16 × 17 15/16 in. (53.5 × 45.6 cm)  (show scale)
SIGNATURE Signed, "El Lissitzky," lower right or lower left of composition in pencil. Each print signed.
COLLECTIONS European Art
ACCESSION NUMBER 50.191.10
CREDIT LINE By exchange
MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
CAPTION El Lissitzky (Russian, 1890-1941). New Man (Neuer), 1923. Color lithograph on wove paper, image: 12 × 12 1/2 in. (30.5 × 31.8 cm). Brooklyn Museum, By exchange, 50.191.10. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, CUR.50.191.10.jpg)
EDITION Edition: 6/75
IMAGE overall, CUR.50.191.10.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2010
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RIGHTS STATEMENT © artist or artist's estate
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El Lissitzky (Russian, 1890-1941). <em>New Man (Neuer)</em>, 1923. Color lithograph on wove paper, image: 12 × 12 1/2 in. (30.5 × 31.8 cm). Brooklyn Museum, By exchange, 50.191.10. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, CUR.50.191.10.jpg)