Beat the whites with a red wedge. Geometric symbolism in avant-garde art

In the study on the iconography of the poster of Lisitsky, the “wedge -red Belykh”, for the first time, an attempt was made to a comprehensive analysis of this textbook work of the early Soviet era. The narrative unfolds, following the path of avant -garde art: from futurism to indescribability and a new sign system. An extensive illustrative material convincingly shows that the circle and wedge were the most important formal motive of the 1920s. And if the “Vitruvian man” Leonardo da Vinci is a kind of emblem of the Renaissance, then for the avant -garde such an emblem became a wedge that crashes into a circle. The stability of this combination in Russian art of the 1910-1920s convinces that the revolutionary was graphically depicted that way. The geometry in the simplest way reflected the struggle of the elements, the abstract form became symbolic. The poster “Red Brin ...” is associated with many phenomena in the avant -garde culture. There are many names around it - artists, poets, thinkers, politicians.
3rd edition, corrected and supplemented