Moholy-Nagy played a key role at the Bauhaus in Weimar and Dessau as a painter, graphic artist, teacher, and impassioned advocate of avant-garde photography. He made this image without a camera by placing ordinary objects, including his hand and a paintbrush, on a sheet of photosensitized paper and exposing it to light. While this simple process was practiced by photography's founders in the nineteenth century and was later popularized as a child's amusement, avant-garde artists in the twentieth century revived the photogram technique as a means for exploring the optical and expressive properties of light. With this shadow-image of a hand and paintbrush, Moholy-Nagy ambitiously suggests that photography may incorporate, and even transcend, painting as the most vital medium of artistic expression in the modern age.
This image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.
Open Access
As part of the Met's Open Access policy, you can freely copy, modify and distribute this image, even for commercial purposes.
API
Public domain data for this object can also be accessed using the Met's Open Access API.
This image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.
Artwork Details
Use your arrow keys to navigate the tabs below, and your tab key to choose an item
Title:Fotogramm
Artist:László Moholy-Nagy (American (born Hungary), Borsod 1895–1946 Chicago, Illinois)
Date:1926
Medium:Gelatin silver print
Dimensions:23.9 × 17.9 cm (9 7/16 × 7 1/16 in.) Mount: 33.1 × 27.9 cm (13 1/16 in. × 11 in.) Frame: 21 × 17 in. (53.3 × 43.2 cm)
Classification:Photographs
Credit Line:Ford Motor Company Collection, Gift of Ford Motor Company and John C. Waddell, 1987
Object Number:1987.1100.158
Inscription: Inscribed in ink on print, verso UL: "Moholy-nagy // Kameralose // fotografie (1926)"; inscribed in pencil on print, verso UC: "TOP"; inscribed in pencil on print, verso UC: "2 1/2 [line with arrows to left and right edges] // OVER ALL"; inscribed on circular paper label affixed to print, verso C: "38 3/4"; stamped in ink on print, verso LL [sideways]: "Popular // Photography // 608 S. DEARBORN ST. // CHICAGO"; stamped in ink on print, verso LL [sideways]: "ROTO PAGE 31 [number in pencil]" inscribed in pencil on print, verso LL [sideways]: "E [encircled]", "2A [encircled]"; inscribed in pencil on print, verso UL: "3 [encircled with arrow entering the circle]";
William Larson, Philadelphia, by 1975; [Robert Miller Gallery, New York]; John C. Waddell, New York (April 13, 1984)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The New Vision: Photography between the World Wars. The Ford Motor Company Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 23–December 31, 1989.
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. "The New Vision: Photography between the World Wars. The Ford Motor Company Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art," February 28–April 22, 1990.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art. "The New Vision: Photography between the World Wars. The Ford Motor Company Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art," May 10–July 15, 1990.
High Museum of Art. "The New Vision: Photography between the World Wars. The Ford Motor Company Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art," February 5–April 28, 1991.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. "The New Vision: Photography between the World Wars. The Ford Motor Company Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art," June 8–August 4, 1991.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Johnson Gallery, Selections from the Collection 1," December 4, 1992–May 4, 1993.
IVAM, Centre Julio Gonzalez, Valencia. "The New Vision, IVAM, Centre Julio Gonzalez, Valencia," January 20, 1995–March 26, 1995.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Johnson Gallery, Selections from the Collection 33," September 23, 2002–February 23, 2003.
Smith College Museum of Art. "Bauhaus Modern," September 26, 2008–December 17, 2008.
Museum of Modern Art, New York. "Bauhaus 1919-1938," November 8, 2009–January 25, 2010.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Reimagining Modernism - Photographs Rotation 4," July 20–October 20, 2015.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Making The Met, 1870–2020," August 29, 2020–January 3, 2021.
Hollein, Max. Modern and Contemporary Art in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2019. pp. 46–47.
László Moholy-Nagy (American (born Hungary), Borsod 1895–1946 Chicago, Illinois)
1930
Resources for Research
The Met's Libraries and Research Centers provide unparalleled resources for research and welcome an international community of students and scholars.
The Met Collection API is where all makers, creators, researchers, and dreamers can connect to the most up-to-date data and public domain images for The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.
Feedback
We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.
The Met's Department of Photographs houses a collection of more than 75,000 works spanning the history of photography from its invention in the 1830s to the present.
