HANOVER.-1923 - The Sprengel Museum opens the exhibit Portfolios in the Kestner Society Collection (Kaus, Lissitzky, Moholy-Nagy, Schmidt-Rottluff and Schwichtenberg) through June 29. 1923 was a special year for Hanover as well as for the Kestner Society, which was founded a few years previously. The new director, Eckart von Sydow, took the initiative to organise El Lissitzky's first exhibition. Since Lissitzky's work sold exceptionally well during the show, the artist was asked to create a portfolio of lithographs as a special, annual edition for members of the society. This “Proun-Portfolio” was intended to help fill the empty coffers of the poorly-funded Kestner Society. That same year, 5 additional portfolios were assembled comprised of works by Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Max Kaus, Martel Schwichtenberg, Willy Robert Huth und László Moholy-Nagy as special editions for members. A seventh portfolio was in the planning stages, featuring Oskar Schlemmer's works, but then, when Eckart von Sydow left Sprengel, it was not brought to fruition. In 1923 El Lissitzky was asked by Leunis & Chapman Printmakers of Hanover, who had realised the existing Kestner Portfolios, to realise an additional one featuring 10 figurines from the electro-mechanical extravaganza ‘Sieg über die Sonne’ (Victory over the Sun), an opera by Alexei Krutshonych.