Lucia Moholy was one of the most prolific photographers at the Bauhaus between 1923 and 1928, while her husband, László Moholy-Nagy, was an instructor there. For both, photography was not simply a transparent window onto objective reality but a specific technology to be systematically explored in the modern spirit of exuberant experimentation. Here, illustrating the effect of selective focus, Moholy imprints his hand against the invisible picture plane that separates viewer and subject-a playful, disorienting gesture that collapses illusionistic depth into the concrete reality of the photographic image.
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Artwork Details
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Title:László Moholy-Nagy
Artist:Lucia Moholy (British (born Austria-Hungary), 1894–1989)
Date:1925–26
Medium:Gelatin silver print
Dimensions:Image: 10 3/16 × 7 15/16 in. (25.8 × 20.1 cm) Mount: 14 × 11 in. (35.6 × 27.9 cm) Mat: 19 1/2 in. × 17 in. (49.5 × 43.2 cm) Frame: 20 × 16 in. (50.8 × 40.6 cm)
Classification:Photographs
Credit Line:Ford Motor Company Collection, Gift of Ford Motor Company and John C. Waddell, 1987
[Robert Miller Gallery, New York]; John C. Waddell, New York (April 13, 1984)
Negative date: 1925-6.
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.
IVAM, Centre Julio Gonzalez, Valencia. "The New Vision, IVAM, Centre Julio Gonzalez, Valencia," January 20, 1995–March 26, 1995.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Portraits: A Century of Photographs," September 10, 2002–January 13, 2003.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Johnson Gallery, Selections from the Collection 47," September 20, 2007–January 6, 2008.
Museum of Modern Art, New York. "Bauhaus 1919-1938," November 8, 2009–January 25, 2010.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The New Woman Behind the Camera," June 28–October 3, 2021.
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. "The New Woman Behind the Camera," October 31, 2021–January 30, 2022.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Photography between the Wars: Selections from the Ford Motor Company Collection." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin (Spring 1988). front cover.
Hambourg, Maria Morris. The New Vision: Photography between the World Wars, Ford Motor Company Collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1989. no. 51, p. 38.
Lucia Moholy (British (born Austria-Hungary), 1894–1989)
1927
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