El Lissitzky led the avant-garde movement in art and construction by his Prouns. Lissitzky’s Prouns were created in 1919 and fused the flat geometric Suprematism forms with a virtual architectural feeling. Lissitzky used axonometrics projections rather than two-dimensional color planes, as Malevich had done in his Suprematist piece. Lissitzky would create a geometrical figure using Renaissance perspective and rotate it 90°. This added a volume that corresponded to its new orientation. The viewer is confused about the relationship between the composition and the viewer, which led Yve-Alain Bois to describe the Prouns in terms of “radical reversibility”. El Lissitzky defines perspective as a way to limit space by making it closed and finite. Suprematism, on the other hand, has extended that finite visual cone into infinity. Axonometry is different from perspective in that it moves the point of an apex cone into an infinite space. Perspective is a way to express the fixed human center in a limited world. It restricts the area within the field of vision where the human perspective is fixed. It is a way to represent volumes and space relationships on a plane surface. It is a way to represent three-dimensional shapes on a 2-dimensional surface. The eye level and vanishing point are used to construct a perspective drawing. Axonometric projecting removes the vanishing-point, adding depth and volume to the image. The use and interpretation of perspective in various art and architectural movements can also be a contribution to the transition from art into construction.
El Lissitzky’s New Man is a lithography of paper that represents the two-dimensional design of the Electro-Mechanical Show “Victory of the Sun”. It combines geometric abstraction, Suprematism’s limited palette, and Proun’s multidimensionality. New Man has a red-squared torso and a head composed of red stars and black stars. New Man is an axonometric project where the head, arms and legs are all outstretched. This image is a reference to the Prouns’ floating-in space geometry. Lissitzky’s Prouns represent the Suprematist idea of two dimensional forms and shape that was transformed into 3D architecture. New Man was a work I created by transforming it from two-dimensional to three-dimensional architecture, which represents the move from art to construction. The reimagined image was recreated with three-dimensional elements that fill space. This was then hung up on the wall in a room. The sculpture is created by hanging the objects on the wall of a space. The sculpture can now interact with the space and expresses energy and force, not just aesthetics. By interacting with objects, the artwork is now visualized. Lissitzky’s New Man piece uses axonometrics, whereby the vanishing line is moved to infinity. This removes it from the image. By reimagining the image into his Proun Room and involving spectator movement to understand space, it appears three-dimensional. Viewers can interact physically with the space by physically hanging abstract art on the walls. Lissitzky’s Prouns use axonometry to force the viewer to make constant interpretations of what they see: Is it hollow or relief? Proun 19D meets the same criteria as Lissitzky’s other works that are ambiguous from a perspectival perspective. The top-left corner of the piece is a collage of polychromatic shapes and geometric fragments. These create multiple viewpoints and confuse the observer, disrupting their relationship to the image plane. Lissitzky created a multitudes of viewpoints in both his two-dimensional Proun Rooms prints and his three dimensional Proun Images. Lissitzky termed this area the interchange between painting, architecture, and materiality. Lissitzky translates his Prouns into three-dimensional works that change the way spectators perceive conventional gravity-based spatial perceptions. In the reproduction of the human image, I switched the medium from a two-dimensional drawing to a three dimensional installation collaged with three-dimensional items. Lissitzky’s original New Man, as well the recreated New Man, explores the spatial elements of shifting axes with multiple perspectives. Both ideas are unusual in Suprematism. The original piece was a flat 2D geometric form with a virtual architecture that gave the viewer the illusion of 3D, whereas the recreated work is a 3D piece. This creates a form architecture where volume, depth and objects are real. The audience can also interact with them. Lissitzky, through his exploration of Proun and axonometric projects, transformed two-dimensional colour planes into three dimensional architecture during the Modern era. In other works of the modern period, perspective is used to transform art into architecture. Mies Van der Rohe’s Urban Design Proposal at the Alexanderplatz in Berlin competition incorporates existing views from above. The model is then placed on top of the aerial photo. The two images have been collaged in a similar way to the New Man reimagined, where three-dimensional elements were collaged into the style of Mies’ Proun Rooms. Mies relied on perspective to create his visuals, but is opposed to axonometric exploration. Mies and other architects use distortion to express their ideas. The distortion is evident in his 1935 sketch of Hofhauser. This image has a panorama effect because the left and right of the image depict different perspectives. Vladimir Tatlin also created three-dimensional assemblages using industrial materials in his Counter Reliefs (1914-16). They were arranged into multilayered abstract configurations of geometric elements. Tatlin and Lissitzky both used similar materials, such as metal and wood. They didn’t need frames or spatial boundaries. Tatlin’s three-dimensional installations were inspired by the flexibility, durability, and varying angles that these materials could take. His Counter Reliefs was made up of bent wood and metal sheets that were hung on a curved wall. Lissitzky’s Proun Room, however, was abstracted and incorporated geometric shapes as well as linear vectors around the corners of walls and ceilings. The term counter relief reinforces matter’s interaction with void. Reliefs were created using sculptural technique and are meant to enhance the visual experience from a forward perspective. Tatlin’s Counter Reliefs are not axonometric like Lissitzky’s, but the relationship between mass-void creates an illusion of depth and space. Tatlin reverses the spatial relationship in his Counter Reliefs, where the void is occupied by matter and the space supports the work. Tatlin exhibited a strong influence from Cubist thought. The Fish Monger (from 1911) and The Nude(from 1913), both of which are paintings, were also influenced by Cubism. Tatlin separates and fragments his image into multiple planes. Tatlin uses curved lines and rounded shapes. This is a two-dimensional picture, but the perspective and depth have been distorted. Also, the shapes of the objects and figures are flattened and simplified. Tatlin breaks the forms down into planes and distorts perspective. Tatlin is a similar artist to El Lissitzky. He experiments with depth and perspective in two-dimensional works and has then applied this technique to his three dimensional installations, Counter Reliefs. The objects are extended into space to create a relationship with the surrounding space. The Bottle, a work from 1913, is a transitional piece between his earlier figural works and his counter-reliefs in three dimensions. The Bottle uses a variety of industrial materials. However, it is still stuck on the flat surface that was painted and hasn’t completely broken away from canvas. Naum’s Head of a Woman from 1917-20 incorporates architectural and engineering principles in his sculptures. Gabo’s sculptures are constructed from interlocking parts, rather than mass-produced carvings or moulds. This allows him to include space in his work. Gabo uses distortion in his abstract sculptures, much like Tatlin did with his distorted perspective of the human body.
Renaissance movements from the 1300s can show the evolution of perspective and its transition from the arts to the constructions. Filippo Brunonellschi was not just an architect. He played a significant role in the Renaissance by rediscovering one-point perspective, which revolutionized art and led to naturalistic style. Brunelleschi found that parallel lines converged at one point in the distant distance when looking from a single, fixed point. Brunelleschi found a way to calculate depth when he applied one vanishing point on a painting. It was possible for many artists to create illusions on two-dimensional surfaces. His architecture is based on perfect geometrical principles. His works were all symmetrical and used linear perspective. He used pietra serena and stucco for highlighting the linear lines and shapes in his churches. Lissitzky’s original New Man, as well as the recreated version of New Man, do not belong to the Renaissance period. They also do not show linear perspective. But they still have a similar effect in creating the illusion of three dimensional space in a two dimensional canvas. Brunelleschi redraws all geometric objects to a singular vanishing plane. Lissitzky employs an axonometric method where the vanishing plane no longer exists. Lissitzky, however, uses an axonometric perspective that appears less realistic. If Lissitzky’s New Man had been drawn during the Renaissance, it would have perfect perspective, order and geometry. There would be no collage of objects. It is important to draw the human figure in such a way as to be balanced and symmetrical. Cubism deconstructed perspective conventions that dominated painting from the Renaissance. Cubism, one of 20th-century’s most influential movements, was born in this century. The objects were dissected and reassembled in an abstracted manner. Pablo Picasso and other artists would build their final representations using geometric forms. Images were reduced to simple shapes, lines and colours during this period. Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1901) by Pablo Picasso shows Cubist art in its limited palette and flattened appearance. It also divides the image in fragments with perspective and depth distorted. Lissitzky’s New Man would fit perfectly in this movement, due to the geometric shapes it uses and its limited palette of colours. Its perspective, however does not follow axonometric but is distorted. Cubism also opened the door to later movements like Abstract Expressionism and Surrealism. Surrealism is the blending of two opposites. The impossible is made real when we contrast what we perceive with what we believe about reality. In The Persistence Of Memory (1931), Salvador Dali shows several surreal items, such as’soft watches’. His works use perspective to create an illusion of depth. It makes you wonder what background, middleground, and foreground are. Also, it makes the viewer wonder where the vanishing and horizon lines are. New Man is a surrealist painting, so the human figure will be distorted in a way that would not be possible. The red square would be larger, and the red-and-black star would be smaller. This would give the human figure a large torso and a small face. This image would look like it was created in the Surrealist period because of its ironic ideas and impossible reality.
Perspective has been influenced by many art and architectural movements. The Renaissance period was one of the first movements to adopt the technique and method of linear perspective with a single point. This period embraced ancient concepts like naturalism, perspective, and balance. It is ordered and symmetrical. Cubism divides an image into multiple planes. In two-dimensional paintings the perspective, depth and form of the figures or objects are altered. Surrealism creates depth in its artworks by using irony and juxtaposition. El Lissitzky’s Proun pictures and Vladimir Tatlin’s Counter Reliefs explore perspective in the Modernist era. All these movements created the illusion of space through the representation of a three dimensional object on a canvas that was two dimensional. Lissitzky also developed Proun Rooms in this way, and it represents a transition from painting to construction. This is visible in the New Man in the collaged empty room. These movements have transformed the two-dimensional planes and colours into three-dimensional structures.
