Pangeometry

image3_a_and_pangeometry_el_lissitzky_1925-e1409186461326

In K. und Pangeometrie (1925), El Lissitzky created this triptych to demonstrate three methods of visual construction. What he has labeled as “Leonardo” was referring to the predominantly Western European practice of projecting the tip of the visual pyramid back to the horizon creating converging lines in depth, while Eastern traditions, titled “Chinese,” tend to pull the tip forward into the eye producing diverging lines. The center square appears to represent the ambiguity of depth of “Irrational Space,” which Lissitzky linked to the Suprematists who he claimed moved the tip of the visual pyramid to infinity creating a spatial representation in which there exists only vertical, horizontal, and diagonal lines.

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