Underwater Swimmer, Esztergom, Hungary

André Kertész American, born Hungary

1917

Not on view

Returned to lender

This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.

This tiny but iconic masterpiece of twentieth-century photography is the second earliest work in the exhibition, and a gem in the Tenenbaum and Lee collection. Made while André Kertész was convalescing from a gunshot wound received while serving in the Austro-Hungarian army during World War I, it prefigures by some fifteen years his renowned mirror distortions produced in Paris. Displaying both Cubist and Surrealist influences, the photograph reveals the artist’s commitment to the spontaneous yet analytic observation of fleeting commonplace occurrences—one of the essential and most idiosyncratic qualities of the medium.

Artwork Details

Overview

Exhibition History

Title: Underwater Swimmer, Esztergom, Hungary
Artist: André Kertész (American (born Hungary), Budapest 1894–1985 New York)
Date: 1917
Medium: Gelatin silver print
Dimensions: Image: 1 1/2 in. × 2 in. (3.8 × 5.1 cm)
Framed: 12 × 14 in. (30.5 × 35.6 cm)
Classification: Photographs
Credit Line: Promised Gift of Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee, in celebration of the Museum’s 150th Anniversary
Curatorial Department: Photographs