Proun 5a

Lissitzky coined the term Proun, an acronym derived from the Russian phrase meaning 'Project for the Affirmation of the New', around 1919, and the series became the defining body of work through which he articulated the intersection of Suprematism, as originated by Kazimir Malevich, and the architectural ambitions of the emerging Constructivist movement. By the time Proun 5a was produced in 1923 as part of the landmark portfolio published by the Kestner-Gesellschaft in Hanover, Lissitzky had already completed his famous Proun Room installation and was deeply engaged with the European avant-garde through his time in Berlin and his connections to the De Stijl circle and the nascent Bauhaus. The Kestner portfolio, which included this work, was a deliberate act of dissemination: Lissitzky understood the print medium as a vehicle for spreading revolutionary visual ideas across borders at a time when the Soviet avant-garde was engaging directly with Western European modernism. The portfolio was acquired by major institutional collections and established Lissitzky's international reputation well beyond the Soviet context in which the Proun series had originated.