3. Sentry
- Artist: El Lissitzky
- Date: 1923
- Medium: Lithograph on paper
- Dimensions: image: 510 x 430 mm
- Museum: Tate Modern
- Collection record: Tate Modern website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is the “3. Sentry” by El Lissitzky, a 1923 lithograph on paper. It’s the third in a set of ten prints that came out of the “Victory over the Sun” portfolio – a collection of color lithographs made as a New Year gift for the Society’s members. Each sheet is hand‑drawn, hand‑signed, and the whole edition ran to just 75 numbered copies, the Tate holding copy 8.
In this piece Lissitzky turns a familiar figure from the futurist opera into a mechanical puppet: a postman, drawn with a stylised, almost machine‑like body. The design reflects the mechanical‑theatre concept that underpinned the opera – a stage of shifting, rotating elements, all controlled by a single operator. Lissitzky’s work captures that energy, translating the opera’s sound‑poetry and kinetic ideas into a striking visual statement about technology and society.
See it in person
3. Sentry is in the collection of Tate Modern on Bankside, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
