1. Part of the Show Machinery
- Artist: El Lissitzky
- Date: 1923
- Medium: Lithograph on paper
- Dimensions: image: 512 x 430 mm
- Museum: Tate Modern
- Collection record: Tate Modern website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is the “1. Part of the Show Machinery” by El Lissitzky, a 1923 lithograph on paper. It comes from a portfolio of ten color lithographs that Lissitzky produced as a gift for the members of the Society after his successful 1923 Hanover exhibition. The portfolio, printed by Rob Leunis & Chapman in Hanover, was limited to 75 numbered copies—this one is copy 8.
The print is a diagrammatic burst of activity: the Elocutionist, the New Man, the Globetrotter (in Time) and the Gravediggers. Lissitzky’s layout shows an open, rib‑constructed stage that could shift, revolve or extend, reflecting the “electromechanical peepshow” he imagined for the Futurist opera “Victory over the Sun.” In the background, the stage’s mechanics are hinted at, and the text—“POBEDA NAD SOLNTSEM” in Russian and a multilingual quotation—echoes the opera’s playful, avant‑garde language.
The work blends abstraction, diagrammatic form, and a machine‑age aesthetic, illustrating Lissitzky’s ambition to make the stage itself a dynamic, living structure.
See it in person
1. Part of the Show Machinery is in the collection of Tate Modern on Bankside, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
