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Image of Gallery in South Kensington

Self-Portrait : Constructor

Photograph
1924 (made)
Artist/Maker
Lissitzky, El (photographer)
Place of origin
Switzerland (made)

Monochrome photograph (silver gelatin print) of a collage of lithographic and drawn elements added to a photographic image. The photographic image was itself produced by superimposing two separate photographs: The Architects Equipment (showing El Lissitzky's hand holding a compass against graph paper with an arching line) and his Self Portrait, both taken in 1924 while Lissitzky was recovering from tuberculosis in a Swiss sanatorium. The resulting image fuses the artist's head, hand and tools. Large printed letters 'XYZ' appear in the top left hand portion of the image.

Object details

Category
Photographs
Object type
Photograph
TitleSelf-Portrait : Constructor (assigned by artist)
Materials and techniques
Collage of lithographic and drawn elements added to a photographic image
Silver
Photographic Paper
Photography
Brief description
Photograph : Self-Portrait: Constructor, Gelatin silver print, El Lissitzky, 1924
Physical description
Monochrome photograph (silver gelatin print) of a collage of lithographic and drawn elements added to a photographic image. The photographic image was itself produced by superimposing two separate photographs: The Architects Equipment (showing El Lissitzky's hand holding a compass against graph paper with an arching line) and his Self Portrait, both taken in 1924 while Lissitzky was recovering from tuberculosis in a Swiss sanatorium. The resulting image fuses the artist's head, hand and tools. Large printed letters 'XYZ' appear in the top left hand portion of the image.
Dimensions
  • Height: 106mm
  • Width: 116mm
  • Frame height: 400mm
  • Frame width: 400mm
  • Frame depth: 30mm
Style
Constructivist
Gallery label
(07 03 2014)
Gallery 100, ‘History of photography’, 2011-2012, label text :

El Lissitzky (1890-1941)
‘Self-portrait: Constructor’
1924

Lissitzky presents himself as a designer with the
attributes of his profession: graph paper; a hand
holding a pair of compasses; and typographical
elements of his own letterhead. The montage was
made by contact printing the different negative
elements one after the other onto the same positive
printing-out paper.

Gelatin silver print
Museum no. Ph.142-1985
Object history
Provenance: Mikhail Larionov ollection.
Subjects depicted
Imagination
Intellect
Manual Dexterity
Hand
Head
Compass
Graph Paper
Face
Typography
Capital Letters
El Lissitzky
Bibliographic references
  • Wilk, Christopher (ed.) Modernism : designing a new world 1914-1939. London: V&A Publications, 2006 Number: 1851774777 (pbk.)
  • Ute Eskilden et al. De lo humano: fotografía internacional, 1900-1950 Málago: Museo Picasso Málaga, 2008. 256 p. ISBN: 9788493490140 / 8493490148 / 9788475068190.
Collection
Prints, Drawings & Paintings Collection
Accession number
PH.142-1985

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Record createdJune 27, 2007
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O136602/self-portrait--constructor-photograph-lissitzky-el/
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