In 1922 Lissitzky traveled from his native Russia to Germany, where he met Kurt Schwitters at a conference for progressive artists in Weimar. The two men worked collaboratively until Lissitzky returned to Russia, in 1925. While Lissitzky imparted to Schwitters an interest in the crisp geometry of Russian constructivism, the photographic portraits seen here reveal Schwitters’s influence on his Russian colleague. Made by montaging negatives during the developing process, they portray Schwitters and Jean Arp in the fragmented visual language of Dadaism, set against a background of Dada publications.
Gallery label from Dada, June 18–September 11, 2006.
