After the painters themselves had declared war to the death on the "pic
ture on the wall" and sternly rejected it, we have today got a new attitude
to this problem: we see it no longer as decoration but as a necessary and
functional part of life. We don't hang it on any available wall, but deliber
ately integrate it with the architecture of our living-rooms. We can no
longer be satisfied with mere accurate representation, however perfect: for
mankind must always search for something more, for a symbol of his spiri
tual view of life.
EL LISSITZKY:
Design for a
speaker's
tribune
(1920)