JEAN ARP / EL LISSITZKY

The Isms of Art, 1914–24
Zurich, 1925

In March 1924, the Russian avant-garde artist El Lissitzky wrote enthusiastically of his plans for a “final muster of all the isms,” a comprehensive overview of the abstract art movements of the previous decade. Arp’s imagination was immediately fired by the idea of bringing order in this way to the multiplicity of collectives that were constantly forming.

Later that year, the editors put together an overview of the avant-garde situation that focused on sixteen movements, including Cubism, Futurism, and Suprematism, as well as Dada and Merz. They traced these movements back to their origins in 1914 in order to illuminate shared roots and overarching concepts.

The richly illustrated summary also contains portraits of numerous artists, among them a collaged photographic portrait of Arp by Lissitzky.