Artwork Page for Mannequin

Details / Information for Mannequin

Mannequin

c. 1928

El Lissitzky

(Russian, 1890–1941)
Culture
Russia
Medium
gelatin silver print from a photogram negative
Measurements
Image: 29.4 x 23.5 cm (11 9/16 x 9 1/4 in.); Paper: 29.5 x 25.6 cm (11 5/8 x 10 1/16 in.)
Credit Line
John L. Severance Fund 2007.147
Copyright
© 2013 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
This artwork is known to be under copyright.
Location
Not on view
Print

Description

A figure peers through a magnifying glass at a negative of an image of Paris taken by Lissitzky in 1928. The artist’s interest in the photogram and negative images may relate to his experience of being X-rayed for tuberculosis in 1924. Later that decade, Lissitzky experimented extensively with positive and negative versions of photograms. A photogram provides a negative image of the objects placed on the sensitized paper. Using the photogram as a negative creates a positive print. Printing a mix of positive and negative images on the same sheet of paper allowed Lissitzky to add a sense of three dimensionality to the silhouettes.
A vertically oriented black-and-white photograph depicts a dark, translucent silhouette of a mannequin crouching with its foot on our left resting on a rectangular wire mesh. Above its head, it holds a magnifying glass in its hand on our left and a small sheet in its hand on our right. Overlapping shadows and blurred forms create a mottled background, emphasizing the experimental and layered quality of the composition.

Mannequin

c. 1928

El Lissitzky

(Russian, 1890–1941)
Russia

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