El Lissitzky's Prouns as visual language
The photograph of an anonymous hand in Lissitzky's "Untitled piece" is seen often throughout his work, and this very picture is implemented in many different ways and in many different pieces. It is possible look at the hand and see the hand of a worker, of a proletarian, connecting the art to the masses. However, the use of a photograph at all is perhaps more noteworthy, further situating the art in the "real world." The hand is also holding a compass, an architectural tool, which calls attention to the architect (being synonymous with "the artist" in the context of constructivism) as a subject. The compass is a tool that serves as a connection between the hand of the architect and the drawn line on the page. It blurs the line between the "real world” outside of the art (the photograph) and the world within the art. This proposes the possibility of art as having social utility or purpose, a major tenant of the constructivist ideology, a movement to which Lissitzky contributed much.
As contrasted with the linear features of Malevich’s suprematist works, another common feature of Lissitzky's work is the presence of very precise curvilinear lines. These curvilinear lines are present in most of Lissitzky's Prouns and remained an important piece throughout the rest of his career. We can see these lines in some of his most famous Prouns, such as "A Proun" (left) and "Proun 99" (right), which coincidentally uses the same shape in "Proun 99" and reutilizes it situating it by itself and establishing "A Proun" as a unit in this visual language. Also of note, are the two curvilinear lines present in "A Proun." These lines can also be thought of as units in Lissitzky's language since lines like these are repeated in multiple pieces, albeit their specific shape/orientation differs. Another notable implementation is in "Proun Vrashchenie" and "Proun 12." In this piece, again, the line is the central feature orienting the rest of the individual parts, stringing seemingly separate units together into a cohesive whole. The extreme precision of the lines implies that they were drawn almost mechanically, which is something that the untitled piece in particular lays bare. This fits with the idea that Lissitzky’s work became more explicit as his career advanced.
Another feature of relative significance can be seen in "Proun Vrashchenie," the central pointed shape penetrating the black oval towards the "top" (there isn't one 'correct' orientation). This combination of shapes, a wedge penetrating a circle, is seen elsewhere is both the work of Lissitzky and of Malevich. For example, in Lissitzky's "Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge" and in Malevich's "Black Rectangle, Blue Triangle." This structure suggests an aggressive and penetrative act. The fact that this is seen from Kruchenykh and Larionov's experimental publications all the way back in 1913-1914, to Malevich's suprematist works, to Lissitzky's Prouns in the 1920's shows us that this particular visual language unit is of specific significance.
Returning to the examples of "a proun" and "proun 99," the curvilinear lines seem to spring out of a grid into three dimensional space, playing with the idea of two-dimensionality in three dimensional space. They add a cohesion to the whole by tying the cube (made of two dimensional shapes) to the three-dimensional grid. In "Proun Vrashchenie" we see this as well. In both of these examples, Lissitzky is adding three-dimensionality to the previously two dimensional nature of earlier suprematist art, situating the art in three dimensional, physical space. The "real-world" physicality of this art is probably best represented in "Proun 1 A, Bridge I." In this piece Lissitzky titles it with the word "bridge," leading us to look at it as a bridge. While the shapes are still abstract, the three-dimensionality and cohesive structure in conjunction with the title, give the impression of real world architecture. This led to Lissitzky’s involvement in the constructivist movement in which he designed buildings and architecture actually intended to be built, representing a further progression towards the concept of art with a social function.
