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A painting in two shades of brown, gray, white, black and red.

The painting has a light brown background and shows a series of interlocking and overlapping geometric shapes. A darker brown horizontal band crosses the picture plane slightly above center. A large gray triangle descends from the top edge slightly off center to the right. A black rectangle intersects the triangle two-thirds of the way down from the top, splitting the rectangle. Along white curved shape angles to the right and is overlapped by the split ends of the rectangle. An L-shaped gray form with a red disc overlapping on the end is overlapped by a white rectangle on the diagonal.

Gallery Text

While other constructivist artists in postrevolutionary Russia abandoned easel painting in favor of utilitarian forms such as photography, film, and graphic design that were believed to more easily serve the new state, Lissitzky asserted painting’s important role in advancing creative and spiritual life. His compositions, which he named Prouns (an acronym for the Russian phrase “project for the affirmation of the new”), broke with traditional painterly conventions, and fed “on the ground fertilized by the dead bodies of pictures and their painters.” Proun 12E is typical of Lissitzky’s new pictorial language. A wide band extends across the width of the canvas, anchoring a variety of geometric forms that hover above, defying laws of gravity and perspectival logic. The floating construction that hinges on a red sphere seems to project into space instead of receding into it, as it would in traditional painting. Prouns provided the springboard for Lissitzky’s later artistic activities in diverse fields such as typography and architecture.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
BR49.303
People
El Lissitzky, Russian (Pochinok, Russia 1890 - 1941 Moscow, Russia)
Title
Proun 12E
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
1923
Culture
Russian
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/225571

Location

Location
Level 1, Room 1520, Modern and Contemporary Art, Art in Germany Between the Wars
View this object's location on our interactive map

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
57.2 x 42.5 cm (22 1/2 x 16 3/4 in.)
framed: 62 x 46.5 x 4.3 cm (24 7/16 x 18 5/16 x 1 11/16 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Kurt Feldhäusser, Berlin, bequest; to Marie Luise Feldhäusser, 1945, sold; [E. Weyhe Gallery, New York], sold; to Busch-Reisinger Museum, 1949.


Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Busch-Reisinger Museum, Association Fund
Copyright
© Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
Accession Year
1949
Object Number
BR49.303
Division
Modern and Contemporary Art
Contact
am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • El Lissitzky, exh. cat., Van Abbemuseum and Kestner-Gesellschaft Hannover (Eindhoven and Hannover, 1965), p. 71, cat. no. A24
  • Plus by minus: Today's Half-Century, exh. cat., Albright-Knox Art Gallery (Buffalo, NY, 1968), n.p., cat. no. 81
  • Not So Long Ago: Art of the 1920s in Europes and America, exh. cat., University of Texas at Austin Art Museum (Austin, 1972), p. 61, ill. (b/w)
  • Tendenzen der Zwanziger Jahre : [15. Europäische Kunstausstellung unter den Auspizien des Europarates : in der Neuen Nationalgalerie, der Akademie der Künste und der Grossen Orangerie des Schlosses Charlottenburg zu Berlin, vom 14. August bis zum 16. Okto, exh. cat., Dietrich Reimer Verlag (Berlin, 1977), pp. 1/123, 1/128, fig. 1/181, ill. (color)
  • "'Paris-Moscou', exposition / Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou, Paris", Universalia (Paris, 1980), pp. 495-497, p. 496, ill. (b/w)
  • Charles Werner Haxthausen, The Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University, Abbeville Press (New York, NY, 1980), p. 26, repr.
  • Caroline A. Jones, Modern Art at Harvard: The Formation of the Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Collections of the Harvard University Art Museums (New York, NY and Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Art Museums and Abbeville Press, 1985). With an essay by John Coolidge and a preface by John M. Rosenfield. To accompany the inaugural exhibition at the Sackler Museum, Oct 21 1985 - Jan 5 1986, p. 105, fig. 100, ill. (color)
  • Kristin A. Mortimer and William G. Klingelhofer, Harvard University Art Museums: A Guide to the Collections, Harvard University Art Museums and Abbeville Press (Cambridge and New York, 1986), no. 377, p. 315, repr.
  • Peter Nisbet and El Lissitzky, El Lissitzky 1890-1941: Catalogue for an Exhibition of Selected Works from North American Collections, the Sprengel Museum Hanover and the Staatliche Galerie Moritzburg Halle, exh. cat., Harvard University Art Museums, Busch-Reisinger Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1987), Pl. 43, page 106, ill., color
  • El Lissitzky, El Lissitzky, 1890-1941, Retrospektive : Staatliche Galerie Moritzburg Halle vom 7. Mai bis 3. Juli 1988, exh. cat., Moritzburg Halle Staatliche Galerie (Halle, Germany, 1988), pp. 146-147, ill.
  • Peter Nisbet and Emilie Norris, Busch-Reisinger Museum: History and Holdings, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 1991), p. 65, ill.
  • Günther Regel, Moderne Kunst: Zugänge zu ihrem Verständnis, Ernst Klett Schulbuchverlag Leipzig GmbH (Leipzig, Germany, 2001), p. 141, color illus.
  • Ingeborg Prior, Die geraubten Bilder: die abenteuerliche Geschichte der Sophie Lissitzky-Küppers und ihrer Kunstsammlung, Kiepenheuer & Witsch (Cologne, 2002)
  • Peter Nisbet and Joseph Koerner, The Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University Art Museums, ed. Peter Nisbet, Harvard University Art Museums and Scala Publishers Ltd. (Cambridge, MA and London, England, 2007), p. 126
  • Stephan Wolohojian and Alvin L. Clark, Jr., Harvard Art Museum/ Handbook, ed. Stephan Wolohojian, Harvard Art Museum (Cambridge, 2008), p. 199, ill.
  • Matthew Jesse Jackson, The Experimental Group: Ilya Kabakov, Moscow Conceptualism, Soviet Avant-Gardes, University of Chicago Press (Chicago and London, 2010), pp. 60-62, ill. (color)
  • Geurt Imanse and Frank van Lamoen, ed., Russian avant-garde: the Khardzhiev Collection, exh. cat., Stedelijk Museum (Rotterdam, 2014), p. 294

Exhibition History

  • El Lissitzky, Van Abbemuseum, 12/03/1965 - 01/16/1966; Kunsthalle Basel, 01/27/1966 - 03/06/1966; Kestner-Gesellschaft Hannover, 03/22/1966 - 04/17/1966
  • Plus by Minus: Today's Half-Century, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, 03/03/1968 - 04/14/1968
  • Not So Long Ago: Art of the 1920s in Europes and America, University of Texas at Austin Art Museum, 10/15/1972 - 12/17/1972
  • From Werkbund to Bauhaus: Art and Design in Germany 1900-1934, Busch-Reisinger Museum, Cambridge, 05/12/1980 - 04/26/1980
  • 20th-Century Works on Paper from the Permanent Collection, Busch-Reisinger Museum, Cambridge, 09/07/1981 - 11/11/1981
  • Deutsche Kunst des 20. Jahrhunderts aus dem Busch-Reisinger Museum, Stadtische Galerie im Stadelschen Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt, 10/23/1982 - 01/16/1983; Bauhaus-Archiv, Berlin 30, 02/10/1983 - 04/17/1983; Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, 05/08/1983 - 06/26/1983
  • Re-View: S118 European & American Art since 1900, Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 09/13/2008 - 04/09/2011
  • Re-View: European and American Art Since 1900, Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 05/03/2011 - 06/01/2013
  • 32Q: 1520 Art in Germany Between the Wars (Interwar and Bauhaus), Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 08/03/2017; Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 08/01/2018 - 12/10/2018; Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 08/05/2019 - 01/01/2050; Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 09/04/2021 - 01/01/2050
  • What about Revolution? Aesthetic Practices after 1917, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 08/26/2017 - 01/07/2018

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Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Modern and Contemporary Art at am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu