Historical accidental font in the works of artists of the "Culture League"

Kotliar Elena Romanovna PhD in Art History Associate Professor, Department of Visual and Decorative Art, Crimean Engineering and Pedagogical University named after Fevzi Yakubov 295015, Russia, Republic of Crimea, Simferopol, lane. Educational, 8, room 337 allenkott@mail.ru Other publications by this author

Shirina Nadezhda Sergeevna Senior Lecturer, Department of Design, State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Education "Crimean University of Culture, Art and Tourism" 295023, Russia, respublika Krym, g. Simferopol', ul. Kievskaya, 39 allenkott@mail.ru

An accidental font that serves to highlight the key points of the text (headings, sections, important aspects) It has been known as a cultural phenomenon in history since antiquity, with the appearance of handwritten books, and then its role is strengthened with the spread of printing. This topic is especially relevant at the present time, due to the widespread use of figurative graphic design in book graphics, graphic design, web design.

Modern requirements for graphic design include the use of various expressive means, one of which may be a historical accidental font. With the advent of numerous variations of font graphics, there was also an accentuation on the historical forms of the font, allowing you to create interpretations on the theme of time or place, to which the graphic composition is dedicated. Historical font is used to convey folklore, ethnic or retrospective themes. In particular, it looks organically in the state advertising of TV channels and mass media on the themes of ethnic traditions, national holidays, festivals, ethnographic museums; in commercial advertising of souvenir shops, traditional clothing, food; in the development of web design sites dedicated to folk music, decorative arts, cinema, etc. A separate type of application of historical accidental fonts is text printed products (advertising, posters, posters, magazines) dedicated to a particular youth subculture.

The font is the most important cultural formative in design, therefore, numerous studies, including fundamental ones, both domestic and foreign, have been devoted to its study. The works of such art critics and artists as A. Kapr, V. Toots, V. Favorsky, V. Lyakhov, M. Bolshakov, L. Pronenko, Ya. Chikhold, S. Telingater, M. Zhukov, E. Ruder, A. Shitsgal ^[20], Ya. Chernikhov, N. Taranov, M. Kovrizhenko, V. Lesnyak ^{[11, 12]}, S. Serov, D. Pisarevsky, E. Derbilova, A. Korolkova, T. Ivanenko, etc. In these studies, the origin of the font, its types and stylistic modifications, tools, equipment and materials for its creation are considered in detail. A number of articles are also devoted to modern accidental fonts. However, there are few systematic, fundamental materials on this topic, and among them there are almost completely no studies of the Hebrew font, in terms of its plastic forms and interpretations in art.

The study of accidental fonts should begin with the consideration of the genesis of the actual written signs in the process of formation of design and artistic culture. The emergence of a new writing system in the culture of a particular ethnic group usually means a new milestone in its history. Thus, each of the periods is characterized by a certain font design, the analysis of which makes it possible to attribute a graphic work to a particular era. Analyzing such fonts, we can come to the conclusion that they should be attributed to historical accidental, despite the fact that they were mainly applied to the main text, and not to the highlighted accents.

The historical accidental fonts characteristic of the designated epochs include: Greek archaic writing; Roman monumental writing; Roman classical writing; handwritten book fonts; square writing; rustic; uncial; semi-uncial; Carolingian minuscule; Gothic writing (texture, rotunda, fracture); humanistic writing; Old Slavic writing (charter, semi-charter, cursive). If we talk about Hebrew writing, then at certain periods it was stylistically close to Sumerian cuneiform, Arabic script, antiquity, Byzantine writing, etc., although the configuration of the letters remained unique, Hebrew.

In addition to accidental fonts that were formed historically, there are a number of reconstructions created according to historical patterns. Such work is distinguished by a number of features. Such a reconstruction is preceded by a thorough detailed study of the technologies, basics, materials and tools, colors, with the help of which the font was written in the designated historical period. When creating search sketches and subsequently, when translating them into digital form, it is necessary to adhere to the original plastic and the nature of the original source. Adopting historical experience, it is also necessary to imagine how this font will fit into the modern look of a graphic (digital) work, and adjust it within the style. This process of artistic adaptation involves some change in the properties and purposes of the image. Studying the properties of the historical font, the artist is imbued with its type, which allows him to interpret it in accordance with the new requirements of modern design. Thus, a work created on the basis of the studied historical material is given a new meaning ^[11].

The purpose of modern graphics is not to completely copy historical fonts, although this may be the initial stage of their study. However, the creation of a new font based on the old one must meet modern realities, digitalization rules, formats, size ratios and other parameters. The accidental font gives an opportunity for creative interpretation, the manifestation of the artist's own style, which, combined with the historical character, leads to the birth of a new design ^[4].

Folk heritage is an inexhaustible source of creativity, using which subsequent generations of artists can create their own works, thus continuing the ethnic tradition. The use of the aesthetic basis and elements of the traditional font in a new interpretation creates a powerful impulse of creative thought, creating a new expressive iconic image. The typeface can be viewed from various angles: psychological expression, linguistic accuracy and etymology, semiotic meaning, execution technology ^[11].

The concept of "Historical accidental font" has not been introduced into the scientific thesaurus to date, however, a number of prerequisites have already been made for its definition. Thus, when referring to the works of such authors as A. I. Kudryavtsev ^[9], A. G. Shitsgal ^[20], A. Korolkova ^[7], V. I. Lesnyak ^{[11, 12]}, T. A. Ivanenko ^[4], N. S. Shirota ^[20], it is possible to analyze a number of terms involved in formation of this definition: grapheme, font, accidental font. The definition of "Historical accidental font" is formulated by N. S. Shirok as "a group of accidental fonts that reflect a certain historical epoch and may have an ethnic coloring, as well as bear the imprint of a certain style in art" ^[20].

Due to the artistic and figurative expressiveness and depth of meaning inherent in its development, a historical accidental font can contain more information than an image or a large-scale text. Thus, the historical accidental font becomes a new image and expressive means of visual communication ^[20].

It is worth noting that the creation of such font interpretations and new types of fonts based on historical and ethnic, including the avant-garde Jewish accidental font, is not a supernova trend in art, and falls on the period of the late XIX and especially the beginning of the XX century. The beginning of the twentieth century in Western and Eastern Europe was a time of large-scale historical cataclysms and transformations associated with scientific and technological progress, globalization and urban growth, as well as political reforms. In particular, in Russia, the time following the February Revolution of 1917 and the democratic reforms of the Provisional Government, the national culture as a whole, including the Jewish one, among others, received the opportunity for further development. During this period, favorable conditions were created for the activities of various public organizations: associations, partnerships, circles, etc., the purpose of which was the development of national socio-political and cultural activities ^[8].

Under the influence of new markers of social and spiritual life, slogans became relevant: "New revolutionary art does not need old academic clothes," "New content – a new form," etc. Europe was influenced by the avant-garde, and numerous and diverse modernist trends: Cubism, suprematism, expressionism, futurism, constructivism, etc.

Modernist trends in the art of the twentieth century showed new sources of creative thinking, liberation from old stereotypes. The method of academic naturalism is losing its relevance, opening the way to new methods, approaches and concepts outlined in the programs of each direction. Jewish art also faced the task of conforming to the spirit of the times and developing its national traditions in a new direction. For this purpose, activists of the "Jewish renaissance" organized the Jewish art association "Culture League" with an art professional school and began an active process of creating a "new Jewish art" ^{[6, pp. 23-25]}.

The ideological background for the development of all such associations was the artistic and aesthetic education of working youth. Each of the associations, having adopted the general direction of the development of socialist art, could proclaim its own form for it. For realists, for example, the main thing was the plot showing the "national" form in recognizable geography, nature, ethnography. In the works of other associations, and especially the "Culture League", the idea of works was not tied to the plot, but was aimed at reflecting a new style, a way of expressing plots and figures. New ideas were expressed through the prism of the individual attitude of each author, bearing the national component of the culture of the ethnos to which he belonged ^[8].

The association "Kulturliga", in documents in Russian – "League of Jewish Culture", was founded in January 1918 in Kiev, at that time one of the centers of accumulation of creative Jewish intelligentsia (along with Vilna, Warsaw, Moscow, St. Petersburg, etc.). The founders of the "Culture League" were Jewish Yiddish writers: D. Bergelson (1884-1952), D. Hofstein (1889-1952), M. Litvakov (1894-1939), I. Dobrushin (1883-1953), D. Nister (P. Kaganovich) (1884-1950), N. Maizil (1887-1966), etc. Leaders of Jewish parties also took part in the organization of the "Culture League". In accordance with the program of the association, the Jewish People's University was opened in 1918, a book publishing house, an archive, libraries, art and music sections, a theater studio, gymnasiums, schools, a kindergarten, various professional courses, clubs, etc. worked. The main purpose of the association was the development of Jewish culture in the Yiddish language ^{[15, pp. 3-12]}. Such a task was connected with the new national status of this language, which it received during the centuries–old transformation from colloquial, or as it was called by representatives of Gaskala - "jargon", "spoiled German". They believed that Yiddish hindered the social and cultural integration of Jewry into the European community and did not meet the criteria of an independent original language. However, since the second half of the nineteenth century, the cultural sphere of Yiddish has expanded significantly through fiction, the press, theater, and since the turn of the century also due to the activities of socialist parties and mass emigration, mainly to America. This led to the prerequisites for the emergence of Yiddish as a literary and linguistic movement, the key stage in the formation of which was the conference in 1908 in Chernivtsi, at which Yiddish, along with Hebrew, was proclaimed the national language of the Jewish people. The national concept of Yiddish laid the foundation for the creation of the institute of national autonomy for the continuation of Jewish life in Galut (diaspora) and the development of "modern Jewish culture" ^{[6, pp. 31-37]}.

From the point of view of the ideologists of the Culture League, the "new Jewish culture" had two main features that distinguished it from the previous culture: the Yiddish language - the language of the Jewish masses and the secular, as well as the democratic nature of the culture itself. The "new culture" was supposed to be a synthesis of the old and the new, national and universal, the culture of the masses and the creative intelligentsia as a result of the creative transformation of various elements into an organic fusion, in which the confrontation between the "national" and the "universal" was eliminated, and the Jewish people became a full member of the "world family of peoples". Thus, the "old" (traditional) Jewish culture was presented as "narrowly national", while the "new" was intended to acquire universal, world significance, without losing its national character ^{[6, pp. 17-42]}.

In the first paragraph of the "Charter of the Cultural League" (January 15, 1918), the ways of developing secular Jewish culture in all areas of creativity were prescribed: in music, literature, theater, as well as in education. Fine art was presented as one of the most important national and cultural features associated with both the traditions of the Ashkenazi Shtetl culture and other areas of creativity ^{[15, p. 15]}. The associations of the early twentieth century, including Jewish ones, were characterized by a synthesis of artists and writers, when the platform of the association, its ideological outline was thought out jointly, both verbally and visually. Such synthetism gave rise to a new direction of "national Jewish art", strengthening in the positions of avant-garde trends ^{[10, pp. 94-97]}.

The art section of the "Culture League" was founded in Kiev in July 1918, it included M. Epstein, I.-B. Rybak, I. Rabichev, B. Aronson, S. Nikritin, I. Rabinovich, I. Tchaikovsky, E. Lisitsky, M. Sheikhel, P. Khentova, N. Shifrin, A. Manevich, and others ^{[23, 24]}. The section was headed by I. Dobrushin; B. Aronson and S. Tchaikovsky became secretaries of the exhibitions committee, I.-B. Rybak and M. Epstein headed the art studio, B. Aronson and N. Shifrin – the museum commission ^{[11, p. 43]}. The main quality of the Culture League program was the desire for creative experiments, the search for new solutions in traditional topics. A number of artists of the "Culture League", in particular, I.-B. Rybak, S. Nikritin, I. Rabinovich, B. Aronson, M. Epstein studied in Kiev in the studio of A. Exter, and also jointly participated in the exhibition "Ring" organized by A. Exter and A. Bogomazov in 1914 in Kiev. A. Exter and A. Bogomazov had a great influence on the work of El Lisitsky ^{[10, p. 96]}.

The article by I.-B. Rybak and B. Aronson "The Ways of Jewish Painting", published in 1919, actually contains the manifesto of the Jewish artistic avant-garde ^{[26, pp. 89-90]}. The epigraph to the article was the slogan: "Long live the abstract form embodying specific material, for it is national!". This manifesto was published in the catalog of the exhibition "Culture League", held at the National Art Museum of Kiev in 2007 ^{[15, pp. 64-74]}. The authors of the article saw the main task of visual culture and art in "revealing a pure form, free from any naturalism and literariness", firmly connected with the "national element" revealed in the work even against the will of the artist himself, as a product of "race, time and environment" ^{[14, pp. 70-71]}.

Young Jewish artists moved away from the traditions of academism and neo-primitivism characteristic of the Vitebsk school of I. Pan (many of his students later joined the "Culture League"), and turned to the search for a new formal and plastic language of ethnic art. They borrowed "abstract character" and "pure form" from the traditional features of Jewish art: original perspective, geometricity and two-dimensionality of silhouettes. The main direction of the artists of the "Culture League" was cubo-futurism, widespread in Russia in the late 1910s. ^[1]. There were also traces of neo-primitivism, expressionism and constructivism in the artists' works ^[10]. The "New Jewish Art" was a synthesis of the Jewish artistic tradition and the innovations of the European avant-garde.

An art studio was also organized at the section, reorganized in 1924 into the "Jewish Art and Industrial School", which was headed by M. Epstein until its closure in 1931, and the art workshops were led by D. Bubarev. The school had painting, graphic, sculptural, decorative, photographic, theatrical and mock-up departments, as well as a department for casting models from sculpture. From the Jewish art schools that existed at that time in the world (from the Bezalel school in Jerusalem), the professional school at the Kulturliga was distinguished by belonging to the avant-garde and a pronounced national orientation, and from the Educational Alliance Art School in New York by the theme of the town. Among the students of the school who subsequently reflected the ideas of the "Culture League" in their work were Ts. Kipnis, G. Inger ^{[2, p. 278]}, Sh. Kotkis, and others ^{[6, p. 51-57]}. 

In 1919, following the model of the Kiev organization, branches of the Cultural League were opened in Moscow (by 1924 most of its institutions were disbanded or Sovietized), in Chisinau and Chernivtsi, which were part of Romania, as well as in Kovno, the former capital of Lithuania. In 1922, the Cultural League was organized in New York and Chicago, soon joining with the all-American Jewish organization Arbreter-Ring. The main center of activity of the "Culture League" was in Poland, from 1918-1919 the directions of the art section functioned in Bialystok, Vilna, Grodno, and since 1921 the expanded organization of the "Culture League" was opened in Warsaw ^{[6, p. 27]}. The Polish association "Jung Yiddish" was distinguished by a program similar to the "Culture League" ^{[21, pp. 145-214]}: both organizations were adherents of expressionism in style, unlike the Ukrainian "Culture League", where there was a majority of cubo–futurists. Among the famous artists of the "Culture League" were members of the Moscow organization M. Chagall, N. Altman, R. Falk, among Polish artists - G. Berlevi, J. Adler, M. Schwartz, etc. ^[8].

One of the most important areas of development and activity of the "Culture League" traditionally for the "People of the Book", as the Jews historically called themselves, was book publishing, which is a synthesis of two branches - literary and artistic ^[8]. The new ideology, whose goal was to create a "new Jewish culture," also proclaimed new requirements for the upbringing of children and youth, which was reflected in the publishing activities of the Culture League. The widespread development of secular education in Yiddish led to the demand for illustrated educational and methodical and children's literature ^{[6, p. 77]}. The principles of the development of the new Jewish book art were formulated by I. Dobrushin in the article "The Jewish artistic primitive and the art book for children", in which the author established parallels between the folk and children's worldview, consisting in the "absence of individual differentiation" in children and the "collectivity of folk art". This idea became one of the postulates of the Kulturliga art studio, based on which children's drawing with its generality and bright accents on the main thing became the basis of professional art, and in the design of a children's book, on the contrary, it was recommended to use folk art motifs ^[8].

A characteristic compositional and graphic element, which was widely used by Jewish artists, including representatives of the "Culture League", was an accidental Hebrew font, identical to Hebrew and Yiddish. In addition to semantic meanings, the font included wide decorative possibilities, acting as an independent plastic element ^{[6, p. 93]}. For example, in the cover of the notes of the "Society of Jewish Music", El Lissitzky used a font composition characteristic of traditional Jewish book graphics: a semicircular cartouche formed by a ribbon with an inscription surrounded by a floral ornament, inside which the title of the book is placed, and two ribbons curved in the form of tablets with figures of birds of paradise.

The traditional composition of the tombstone-matzoff with the font included in it is used in the illustration by B. Aronson to the poem by Z. Shneura "The Plucked flower". In the center of the sheet there is a rectangle with the image of a still life – a jug of a flower in a vase and other objects, at the top and bottom there is a text resembling an epitaph, the entire composition around the perimeter is organized with the help of a floral ornament.

The border composition, characteristic of Jewish book graphics, was used by I. Elman in the cover of I. Segalovich's book "Blue", in which the font shape and the margins of the sheet are stylized in the spirit of the trends of the time, in the Art Nouveau style. In the accidental screensaver, the author uses an authentic font in which the white silhouette of the traditional letter is placed on a black background ^[8].

On the cover of the magazine "Oifgang" ("Sunrise") by I.-B. Rybak, the association with traditional folk graphics and plastic tombstones is clearly traced, which is expressed in the composition and style of the font. The whimsically curved font is complemented by elements of phytomorphic ornament, and its large scale is dictated by the requirements for accidental fonts on the cover of a mass publication. The name of the magazine in the upper part of the format is balanced by the lower part, which includes a small font. The composition of the cover includes images of the figure of a hunched old man in a lapserdak with a book in his hands, the silhouette of a goat and the roofs of small town houses, which together with the traditional Jewish font are elements of stable allegories of the shtetl, often used by artists and writers to convey the unique authentic flavor of the town. A similar composition also distinguishes the cover of the almanac "Eigens" ("Native"), designed by I.-B. Rybak in 1918 ^[8].

On the cover of the same almanac in 1920, a large-scale accidental title is placed against the background of a black-and-white rapport composed of elements of traditional decor: the figure of a galloping deer and a phytomorphic ornament. When designing the table of contents, the artist used a characteristic technique, placing at the bottom of the sheet, framed by a narrow strip of floral ornament, images of a flowerpot with flowers and two birds, and above them, as a sample of micrography (a typically Jewish technique studied in detail in I. Sergeeva's dissertation ^{[17, pp. 113-115]}), a small handwritten image of a large tropical a flower.

The accidental font in the design of the strips of M. Leib's book "The Naughty Boy" by E. Lisitsky has a chopped, cubist interpretation and corresponds to the style of the illustrations in the same book ^[8].

The unity of the accidental font and the plot is also characteristic of M. Epstein's illustrations for the book by I. Kipnis "Yard Friends". On the cover, the artist depicts a procession of "friends": a boy, a dog, a cat and a pig, whose figures are depicted using generalized geometrized stylistics. The font of the book's title is located in the form of a semicircle above the figures and also resembles a round dance, emphasizing the movement of the characters. Like figures, letters are geometrized ^[8].

A similar cubo-futurist interpretation of the font was also used by I. Chaikov on the cover of L. Kvitko's collection of poems "1919", dedicated to the Jewish pogroms during the First World War. The numbers of the name are depicted on two sheets of the calendar, that is, they are divided into two parts and are located at an angle to each other. The font in the first two digits, black on a white background, resembles an antique. The last two digits are made in white silhouette on a black background. In the background, also at an angle to each other, stylized male and female half-figures are depicted, whose facial expressions and gestures express mournful bewilderment. The sharp-angled rectilinear shapes of the images, the obvious contrast between them, as well as the large, armature-like figures give the impression of people trapped and terrified of the catastrophe that is taking place.

On the cover of the collection "In the Fiery Epoch", authored by I. Chaikov, accidental font blocks form the basis of compositional rhythmics. In the center of the cubist composition there is an image of a shtetl in the form of inverted houses, fragments of electric poles, roofs, and a man escapes from this chaos. Font blocks of letters of different sizes frame the left part of the composition, and in its right part two columns of text burst out of the middle of the sheet, like a flame. The accidental font here is a full–fledged object of the plot, allegorically pointing to the mystical nature of the letters with which the world was created ("In the beginning there was a Word" - according to the Bible), with their deep sacred meaning and gematria.

Often the accidental font was the only pictorial element in compositions, as, for example, in the cover of the magazine "Red World" ^[3], designed by I.-B. Rybak. The composition is based on a combination of three-dimensional rounded and rectilinear flat fonts, in which small texts are inscribed in larger letters in a cubofuturistic style. In the design of the title of the collection of P. Markish by the artist G. Berlevi, ^[13] a representative of the Polish "Culture League", a decorative cubist font was also used as the only pictorial element. The various geometrized letters created the basis of a rhythmic composition resembling flames.

The Jewish traditional font was also used by artists as an element of collage, which is firmly included in the everyday life of modernism ^[16]. In the picturesque collage by I.-B. Rybak "Alef-Beit", formed by geometric planes superimposed on each other, through which the silhouettes of traditional Jewish everyday life – a wine glass, a candlestick, a mezuzah – are viewed, the font is the compositional dominant, emphasizing the paramount importance of the text. In allegorical form, the font is presented in a similar cubist composition of the Fisherman "Still Life with a silver glass". Intersecting geometric planes reveal the outlines of objects – symbols of the Jewish world: fragments indirectly resembling the texture of a stone building, an engraved glass, an Assyrian ornament – this also reads the plastic language of national art, as the artist wrote in a joint article with B. Aronson ^{[14, pp. 71-74]}. The diamond-shaped structure of the composition is formed by the intersection of the rhythms of the diagonals, through the planes superimposed on each other like colored glass, Hebrew letters appear, creating an association with an ancient manuscript. A special expressiveness is given to the work by a counter-openwork accentuating the right part of the composition, while the left is immersed by the master in a silver-gray penumbra. In general, the composition is similar to a multi-faceted crystal through which real objects shine through ^[8].

 Accidental fonts played a big role in such kind of graphics as stamps of publishing houses and creative associations. Members of the art section of the "Culture League" made sketches of stamps for the "Cultural Foundation in memory of Mendele Peretz Sholom Aleichem", publishing houses "Culture League", "Yiddish Folk Farlag", etc. The traditional symbolism of the shtetl acquired a special monumental sound in this "miniature" direction of creativity.

A striking example is the variants of the brand "Jewish Cultural Foundation named after Mendele Peretz Sholom Aleichem", made in 1918 by E. Lisitsky, I. Chaikov and I.-B. Rybak. The composition of I. Tchaikovsky is inscribed in an elongated horizontal format with a characteristic arched structure formed by Assyrian columns with a ribbon and inscriptions in the Art Nouveau style at the top and bottom. In the archway there is an image of the city on the opposite bank of the river, obscured by the branches of a flowering tree. At the columns on both sides of the tree are placed two crouched figures, personifying the longing for Zion (the Promised Land) and the sorrow of exile – galut. The composition is inspired by the plot of the 137th psalm of David: "By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept ...", which expressed the dream of the return of the Jews to the Promised Land and was widely used in the paintings of synagogues. The style of the stamp and inscriptions show echoes of the Parisian association "Mahmadim".

E. Lisitsky and I.-B. Rybak, whose works are similar in composition and format, see the brand of the publishing house differently. In the center of the stamp there is a gate with a figure of a walking Jew in traditional Hasidic attire, probably the image of Sholem Aleichem himself. The gate is framed by a canopy resembling a synagogue curtain – a parochet, chopped inscriptions are placed on top and bottom. Rybak's work is stylistically similar to the plastic of carved tombstones – mats and traditional book graphics, the image of a person in it is generalized and perceived as part of the decor, thanks to the flatness of the image.

In the stamp of the "Culture League" of Rybak, above the figure of a Hasid with an open book in his hands is an image of two lions, the plastic of which is similar to the paintings of synagogues, a handwritten book and the decoration of tombstones ^[13]. The image of a person is inscribed in the style of traditional decor and accidental font, and, at the same time, it is emphatically expressive.

The original game of tradition and the "dawn" of a new life was presented by E. Lisitsky in the stamp of the publishing house "Yiddish Folk Farlag" ("People's Publishing House in Yiddish"): the image is stylized as a traditional heraldic symbol: a semicircular portal with two Ionic columns and deer supporting a cartouche with an accidental inscription. The name of the publishing house is inscribed in the cartouche, and inside the arch itself is depicted a place over which the light of a new culture shines – the "sun" of a new Jewish book.

Through the images of the shtetl, the title page of M. Broderzon's book "Our Art" is also constructed, where E. Lisitsky presented an allegorical composition characteristic of publishing houses' stamps – in this case, on the theme of various forms of art. On the sides of the title of the book, images of the artist with brushes and palette and the poet with a pen behind his ear and a scroll are shown on elevations. At the bottom of the sheet there is an image of a writer sitting at a table in front of a burning candle, with a scroll spread out in front of him. At the top, a fabulous bird of paradise carries a Jew in its paws, at which all three creators of art are looking, the theme of whose creative works is this simple small-town Jew. In the symmetry of the construction of the sheet, in the two figures framing, like wings, its center and in the style of the accidental Hebrew font, there is a similarity with folk book graphics. At the same time, in the semicircular energetic lines that form the basis of the rhythm of the sheet, the influence of cubo-futurism is undoubtedly ^[8].

Conclusions

1. The historical accidental font is both a marker of a certain epoch and an ethno-national culture (or a synthetic cultural landscape). Its application allows artists to reflect the belonging of the material to a certain culture, to accentuate the time and/or place of the described text or image, to convey at the semiotic level not only the verbal meaning of the text, but also to expand its meaning to a global, socio-cultural level.

2. The Jewish association "Kulturliga" was part of the global artistic avant-garde of the first third of the twentieth century. The main goal and program of the association was the development of Jewish culture and the themes of Jewish shtetls, from which these artists came, but using new stylistic methods in the spirit of the times, in particular, using the style of cubo–futurism and expressionism. The use of the accidental Jewish traditional font helped the artists of the Culture League to solve their tasks, in particular, it was a clear indication that the work belonged to the Jewish branch of the artistic avant-garde.

^[1] The task of the association was to combine the plastic forms of the Ancient East with modern orientalism for artists, however, at that time their desire was ahead of the possibilities, and, in fact, they repeated the style of modernity.