By the Waters of Babylon-Jewish Lyric Verse in World Poetry [poetry]. Text in Cyrillic

(LISSITZKY, ELIEZER)

Safrut

Moscow

1917

With cover designed by LISSITZKY

A Summary Catalogue of Typographical Work by El Lissitzky in Harvard University Art Museums and Busch-Reisinger Museum Lissitzky Exhibition Catalogue (1987) no. 1917/5; and Israel Museum Catalogue, Tradition and Revolution, p.46 (illustrated) and cf. no. 76

Lissitzky’s first known work in the pursuit of a Jewish Art. Despite his involvment with the aesthetic systems of Cubism, Futurism and Constructivism, the influence of traditional Jewish illustration is clearly apparent in Lissitzky’s cover design for this work. The deer and the bird are both popular motifs on Jewish gravestones. According to Ruth Apter-Gabriel; “[Lissitzky’s] treatment of the deer, together with the crystallized space surrounding the title, which is a foreign element in Jewish folk art, shows that Lissitzsky ha[d] definitely given up conjuring an ancient aura as well as pure decoration for the portrayal of Jewish folk art, fused with a more avant-garde style.” See Ruth Apter-Gabriel “El Lissitzsky’s Jewish Works” in IMC, Tradition and Revolution, p. 107. Both front and back cover designs are signed by Lissitzky in Cyrilic in the lower left corner