5. Globetrotter (in Time)
- Artist: El Lissitzky
- Date: 1923
- Medium: Lithograph on paper
- Dimensions: image: 510 x 430 mm
- Museum: Tate Modern
- Collection record: Tate Modern website
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About this artwork
This is the “5. Globetrotter (in Time)” by El Lissitzky. A 1923 lithograph on paper, it’s part of a ten‑print set that accompanied a mechanical‑theatre version of the Futurist opera “Victory over the Sun.” The figure—a traveler who appears in the wheels of an airplane—is wrapped in paper strips labeled Stone Age, Middle Ages, and so on, illustrating Lissitzky’s view of time as a moving machine. The print blends geometric abstraction with theatrical staging: the airplane, the paper layers, and the angular silhouette all hint at a choreographed machine‑age spectacle. Lissitzky produced only 75 copies of the portfolio, each signed and numbered by the artist. The work invites us to imagine the traveler gliding through history, a metaphor for modern mobility and the relentless pace of technology.
See it in person
5. Globetrotter (in Time) 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.
