Research

Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge

'Art before the early 1920’s was “old-fashioned” compared to new art movements called Constructivism. This type of art was said to be the future of art. This type of art contained new tools, new style and artists who wanted to move forward. The main goal of this art was to spring the people of Russia into the future.  Many artists began to create interesting art without the use of paint. One of these artists was EL Lissitzky. He created numerous types of constructivism. The meaning of his art work is what made his art so popular. It was more than just a feeling, but a movement towards the future. Lissitzky’s constructivist works all give a slight remembrance of the past, while showing revolutionary changes of the future. This was his ultimate goal. . His art was always set to have a revolutionary meaning.'

El Lissitzky created numerous amounts of constructivist art in the early 1900’s. One of his more popular pieces of art is “Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge” made in 1919. In this work, El Lissitsky demonstrates a huge red triangle that pierces into a white circle, which creates the center of attention. Throughout the whole picture, red black and white is evenly distributed while showing a slight grey shade near the middle of the picture. This picture creates a spiritual movement of geometric shapes. Geometric shapes move through the picture creating war. This is a two-dimensional picture in which the colors create the shapes. In other words, the black portion of the painting cuts the picture in half while having a round white center that creates a meaningful circle and also the center of attention. Triangular shaped red lines appear throughout the picture that gives a piercing effect. Also Lissitsky puts numerous letters into the picture. The letters appear in black white and red. In this picture Lissitsky creates a movement with the red wedge into the white circle'

https://utopiadystopiawwi.wordpress.com/constructivism/el-lissitzky/beat-the-whites-with-the-red-wedge/

I hope to use this style of geometric shapes and collage in my experiments. This is a type of collage that governments might use as it is not directly appropriation or satire - it uses the cutting and sticking of shapes to form a new image. It might even be interesting to do a parody of this.