Front / Recto

  • Title Record (Runner in the City) (Experiment for a Fresco for a Sports-Club) (Rekord)
  • Negative Date 1926
  • Print Date 1926
  • Medium Gelatin silver print
  • Dimensions Image 10 1/2 x 8 13/16" (26.7 x 22.4 cm)
  • Place Taken Moscow
  • Credit Line Thomas Walther Collection. Gift of Thomas Walther
  • MoMA Accession Number 1766.2001
  • Copyright © 2015 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

Back / Verso

  • Mount Type No mount
  • Marks and Inscriptions Inscribed in pencil on sheet verso, top left: 2.3. [crossed out]. Inscribed in pencil on sheet verso, center: [three illegible characters resembling 2ch]. Inscribed in pencil on sheet verso, center: 167 [circled]. Inscribed in pencil on sheet verso, center: Auto 60er R/204 m/m hoch/77% 35 [crossed out] 40.
  • Provenance The artist, Moscow/Hannover; to the artist's estate (the artist's son, Jen Lissitzky) [1]; to Priska Pasquer, Photographic Art Consulting, Cologne, 1996 [2]; purchased by Thomas Walther, 1996 [3]; given to The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2001.
    [1]. MacGill/Walther 2001(4), p. 9; and Priska Pasquer, letter to Maria Morris Hambourg, October 28, 2013. According to Pasquer, "The son of El Lissitzky, Jen Lissitzky, who was banished with his mother in Novosibirsk returned in the late forties to the old studio of his father in Moscow. There he found a box with photographs and returned with the material to Novosibirsk. In the sixties his mother Sophie Lissitzky-Küppers [1891–1978] published the biography about the work of El Lissitzky [El Lissitzky. Maler, Architekt, Typograf, Fotograf Erinnerungen, Briefe, Schriften, (1967)]. The publishing house Verlag der Kunst kept the vintage prints in Germany until 1989. Verlag der Kunst lent these works to various exhibitions on El Lissitzky for example to the Sprengel Museum Hanover in 1988. After the fall of the wall in 1989 Jen Lissitzky emigrated to the West and shortly after Verlag der Kunst returned these original vintage prints to him."
    [2] MacGill/Walther 2001(4), p. 9; and Pasquer, letter to Hambourg.
    [3] MacGill/Walther 2001(4), p. 9; and Pasquer, letter to Hambourg.

Surface

  • Surface Sheen Matte
  • Techniques Enlargement
    Retouching (reductive)
    Photomontage
    Double exposure
    Toning
  • PTM
    View of the recto of the artwork made using reflectance transformation imaging (RTI) software, which exaggerates subtle surface details and renders the features of the artwork plainly visible. Department of Conservation, MoMA
  • Micro-raking
    Raking-light close-up image, as shot. Area of detail is 6.7 x 6.7 mm. Department of Conservation, MoMA
    Raking-light close-up image, processed. Processing included removal of color, equalization of the histogram, and sharpening, all designed to enhance visual comparison. Department of Conservation, MoMA

Paper Material

  • Format Unknown
  • Weight Single weight
  • Thickness (mm) 0.22
  • UV Fluorescence Recto negative
    Verso negative
  • Fiber Analysis Rag 35%
    Grass 37%
    Softwood bleached sulfite 26%
    Bast 2%
    Softwood bleached kraft 1%
  • Material Techniques Developing-out paper
  • XRF

    This work was determined to be a gelatin silver print via X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectrometry.

    The following elements have been positively identified in the work, through XRF readings taken from its recto and verso (or from the mount, where the verso was not accessible):

    • Recto: P, S, Cl, Ca, Zn, Sr, Ag, Ba
    • Verso: Al, Si, P, S, K, Ca, Fe, Zn, Sr, Ag, Ba

    The graphs below show XRF spectra for three areas on the print: two of the recto—from areas of maximum and minimum image density (Dmax and Dmin)—and one of the verso or mount. The background spectrum represents the contribution of the XRF instrument itself. The first graph shows elements identified through the presence of their characteristic peaks in the lower energy range (0 to 8 keV). The second graph shows elements identified through the presence of their characteristic peaks in the higher energy range (8 to 40 keV).

    Areas examined: Recto (Dmax: black; Dmin: green), Verso or Mount (blue), Background (red)
    Elements identified: Al, Si, P, S, Cl, K, Ca, Fe, Ag, Ba
    Areas examined: Recto (Dmax: black; Dmin: green), Verso or Mount (blue), Background (red)
    Elements identified: Fe, Zn, Sr, Ag

In Context

Related Images

El Lissitzky. Fotofreska (fotopis’) “Rekord”. 1926. Collodium printing-out paper mounted on paper, 4 1/8 x 4 1/8" (10.5 × 10.5 cm). Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. Nikolai Khardzhiev Collection. © 2014 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
El Lissitzky. Runner in the City. 1926. Collage, gelatin silver print, 5 3/16 × 5 1/16" (13.1 × 12.8 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. © 2014 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
El Lissitzky. Record. 1926. Gelatin silver print collage, 4 2/3 x 8 1/3" (12 × 21.4 cm). Galerie Berinson, Berlin. © 2014 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

Historical Exhibitions

  • Moscow. 4 ISKUSSTVA, (as Experiment for a Fresco for a Sports-Club). December 1926.

    Moscow. Vsesouznaia Poligrafischeskaia Vystavka (as Rekord). 1927.

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