Getting a Clearer Read on a Russian Avant-Garde Leader : Art: Getty collection adds letters, photos and documents related to El Lissitsky.

The J. Paul Getty Trust’s latest acquisition isn’t a Greek statue or an Old Master painting that the public can rush to see at the Getty museum in Malibu. It’s merely a stack of papers and photographs, tucked away with Resource Collections at the Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities in Santa Monica.

But modest as it may appear, the new arrival is the object of considerable excitement because it sheds new light on the work of leading Russian avant-garde artist El Lissitsky, who died in 1941. Composed of 126 letters to his wife, artist Sophie Lissitsky- Kuppers; 170 photographs of his artworks, architectural projects and exhibition designs, and 22 additional documents, the little-known collection encompasses most of the Lissitsky archival material that is thought to have remained in private hands.

The Getty purchased the archive at an undisclosed price from the son of the artist, who recovered the treasure trove from Russia in 1989. He kept it in Germany until the recent sale, through New York dealer Howard Schickler.

“The collection is one of those things you hope for, but unless you have unlimited time to travel and visit families of artists, you rarely find,” said Wim de Witt, head of special collections at the Getty. “Everyone jumped at it and said, ‘This is an opportunity we have to pursue.’ We have all been very excited about it.”

In a single stroke, the Getty has landed the largest Lissitsky archive in the United States, De Witt said. Only the Tretiakov Gallery in Moscow and the Van Abbe Museum in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, have more extensive holdings. While beefing up the Getty’s collection of Russian avant-garde material, the archive also enhances its European holdings because Lissitsky traveled extensively, maintained connections with a wide array of artists in many different countries and often worked on collaborative projects.

Lissitsky was born in 1890 at Pochinok, near Smolensk in Russia. An energetic and multifaceted artist who achieved international prominence after the Russian Revolution, he was an abstract painter and sculptor, a visionary modern architect, a graphic designer and a teacher who assumed the role of Russian representative to avant-garde artists in the West, but he also designed government-sponsored, propagandistic exhibitions on everything from the fur industry to the press.

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In a famous series of abstract compositions, which he called “Prouns,” he fused the Suprematism of Kazimir Malevich, the Constructivism of Vladimir Tatlin and Alexander Rodchenko, and some aspects of Dutch artist Piet Mondrian’s Neoplasticism. Most of his architectural schemes were never realized, but he was enormously influential as an innovative graphic artist and designer of both fine art exhibitions and trade shows that promoted socialist ideals.

Although some materials in the archive already have been studied by a few scholars, the Getty acquisition is important because “it really shows Lissitsky from an angle that hasn’t been well known,” De Witt said. “The letters reveal his relationship with his wife and how important she was to him.”

Leafing through the typed and handwritten sheets, Nancy Perloff, curator of manuscripts and archives, pointed out whimsical drawings, diagrammatic sketches and the evolution of the artist’s letterhead. Artistic touches enhance the texts--all written in German, which was Lissitsky-Kuppers’ native tongue but a language that Lissitsky used rather haltingly.

The correspondence--mostly from the 1920s--took place because of Lissitsky’s travels, including to Switzerland, where he recuperated from tuberculosis, Perloff said. The letters contain personal information about the artist’s family, but they also reveal his views of other artists and how Lissitsky-Kuppers, in his absence, kept him up-to-date with the art world and facilitated his collaborative projects.

The photographs document Lissitsky’s own artworks as well as exhibitions he designed or supervised, according to Ljiljana (Lilia) Grubisic, a Russian specialist and special collections cataloguer at the Getty. For the trade fairs, he typically designed an opening sequence that would set the tone and have a dramatic impact, she said. “These were trade fairs, but there was a propaganda agenda behind them intended for the masses--say to instruct the people about proper hygiene.” Using visual excitement to promote a message, the shows often displayed printed material on sculptural structures that simulated machines or other emblems of a futuristic, egalitarian society.

Among other documents in the archive are two tiny address books that read like a Who’s Who of the avant-garde art world, a complete inventory of Lissitsky’s 98 “Prouns” and an employment history compiled in 1929 when he was applying for a job as architect of Gorky Park in Moscow.

Lissitsky was a vital figure who bridged the transition from the Russian avant-garde to Socialist Realism, but because his impact extended far beyond Russia, the archive is more important than it might appear, De Witt said. Currently being catalogued, the collection will be available to scholars and students in the next few months. In addition, the Getty probably will publish the letters and include parts of the collection in upcoming exhibitions, he said.