The analysis undertaken in this paper sets out with El Lissitzky’s 1919 revolutionary poster entitled Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge. This artwork, composed of simple geometric figures, in which an acute-angled red triangle splits the form of a white circle, was used by Soviet propaganda to affirm the so-called ‘October events’. However, a thorough analysis of the poster, i.e. its sources, inspirations, borrowings and contexts, supports the hypothesis that the principal motif (the wedge) also constitutes a graphic equivalent of a letter of the Hebrew alphabet, the letter yud, represented as a small comma or, significantly, an acute-angled triangle. Such a premise yields further consequences with regard to meanings, encompassing aspects related to the Jewish iconic tradition that involve mysticism, magic, and the kabbalah.
The article focuses on the analysis of the 1919 poster entitled “Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge”. The intention of the text is to demonstrate the artist’s inspirations with Jewish mysticism, messianism and Kabbalah, exploited for the needs of the Soviet, revolutionary interpretation of building a new world
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