Aux abattoirs de La Villette
Born in Paris of Romanian parents, Lotar was a Surrealist filmmaker and photographer in the circle of René Clair, Luis Buñuel, Germaine Krull, and André Kertész. In 1929 he accepted a commission from the review Documents, the voice of a Surrealist splinter group headed by Georges Bataille, to illustrate the word abattoir (“slaughterhouse”) in the “Dictionary” section of the journal. In response, Lotar produced a photographic reportage of unsparing realism. His images are particularly shocking for their juxtapositions of killing on the one hand and banal order on the other. This subject is an array of amputated calves’ feet.
Artwork Details
- Title: Aux abattoirs de La Villette
- Artist: Eli Lotar (French, 1905–1969)
- Date: 1929
- Medium: Gelatin silver print
- Dimensions: Image: 22.2 x 16.2 cm (8 3/4 x 6 3/8 in.)
- Classification: Photographs
- Credit Line: Gilman Collection, Purchase, Denise and Andrew Saul Gift, 2005
- Object Number: 2005.100.303
- Curatorial Department: Photographs
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Eli Lotar
Jean Painlevé
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Eli Lotar
Jean Painlevé
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Brassaï
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Germaine Krull
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