Pressemitteilungen

„Der neue Mensch, der Ansager, der Konstrukteur. El Lissitzky: Das Selbstbildnis als Kestner Gesellschaft“, July 8  – October 1 2023, Kestner Gesellschaft, Hanover

On the 100th anniversary of the first exhibition of El Lissitzky (1890–1941) in Hanover, the Kestner Gesellschaft is organizing a show with contemporary positions and works by El Lissitzky that were created in the Hanover context. The artist had his first exhibition at the Kestner Gesellschaft in March 1923, together with Max Burchartz (1887–1961).

Invited by the then director of the art association, Eckart von Sydow, the first of a total of six portfolios with artist graphics that the association published, the so-called Kestner portfolios, was created. For this purpose, El Lissitzky created the Kestner folder 1 “Proun” with six lithographs. It’s not just these graphics that can be seen in the current exhibition. In addition to numerous contemporary works that refer to El Lissitzky’s art, other works by Eliezer “El” Lissitzky can be discovered that have a more applied, commercial graphic character.
The artist came into contact with Günther Wagner’s company in Hanover in 1924 and designed numerous advertising materials and packaging for Pelikan: among other things, sealing wax packaging, advertising advertisements and advertising signs for Pelikan products such as carbon paper, writing ribbons, ink and also a business stationery for them Günther Wagner company.

These works also include items on loan from collector and design researcher Torsten Bröhan, including a fold-out brochure for carbon paper and Günther Wagner’s letterhead.

Viele saubere Durchschläge!

The unfolded fold-out brochure shows stylized colorful and white papers stacked one behind the other. They overlap the light gray background with a fine white frame. The colorful copy papers are marked with the flowing Pelikan lettering, as it was used from 1920 to around 1925. El Lissitzky added the slogan “Viele saubere Durchschläge!” in the style of a typewriter. A letter from Günther Wagner to customers also appears to have been typed on a typewriter.

El Lissitzky often used the motif of the typewriter type for his Pelikan works, which on the one hand gave a good functional indication of the use of carbon paper for carbon copies. On the other hand, he probably liked the rational aesthetics of the typewriter type.
For the business letterhead of the Günther Wagner company, El Lissitzky chose a high-contrast design in red and black; the motif of the colored typewriter ribbon appears in the two-color name lettering and with the wide bars in the typographic elements of the sheet.

With Pelikan from Hanover to Switzerland

In his commercial graphic works for Pelikan, El Lissitzky combined constructivist elements and the requirements of modern typographic and advertising design. The background to these commissioned works was certainly tragic. At the end of 1923, Lissitzky began to experience symptoms of pulmonary tuberculosis, which he wanted to alleviate with a spa stay in Switzerland. In order to be able to finance the treatment, an agreement was made with the Hanover office supplies company Pelikan: he designed advertising graphics and packaging for their products and received a monthly scholarship for this. El Lissitzky was then able to recover in 1924 in various places in Switzerland, in Zurich and especially in Ticino (Orselina, Brione, Abrik, Locarno). His visa was valid from February 9, 1924 to October 1924, and in April 1925 El Lissitzky left Switzerland, traveled to Berlin and Dresden and returned to Moscow at the beginning of June 1925. In a letter in 1925 he mentioned a Russian Pelikan brochure, “the last thing I did in Brione (Switzerland)” (Peter Nisbet: El Lissitzkys typopgrafische Arbeiten, in: El Lissitzky 1890 – 1941. Retrospektive, Hannover, Berlin. 1988, S. 291.)

In the years in Hanover and Switzerland, from 1923 to spring 1925, important artistic works were created in addition to the important Pelikan advertising designs. The connection between these two creative areas in El Lissitzky’s work is made particularly clear with the loans from Torsten Bröhan in the current exhibition
„Der neue Mensch, der Ansager, der Konstrukteur. El Lissitzky: Das Selbstbildnis als Kestner Gesellschaft“

July 8 – October 1, 2023  Kestner Gesellschaft, Hanover

www.kestnergesellschaft.de