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Abstraction

ca. 1924
Not on view
After studying medicine and law in Prague, Funke turned to photography in 1919. He briefly explored the soft-focus style of the Pictorialists but soon gravitated toward the experimental techniques and abstract compositions of the avant-garde. In 1922, influenced by Man Ray's photograms, he made cameraless photographs by placing everyday objects--often equipment from his laboratory--on sheets of photographic paper and exposing them to light. Although he abandoned the technique about 1924, feeling that it strayed too far from pure photography, he continued to make innovative abstractions such as this one, which records the shadows of objects cast onto overlapping sheets of paper--an image that ironically suggests the photogram process he rejected.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Abstraction
  • Artist: Jaromír Funke (Czech, 1896–1945)
  • Date: ca. 1924
  • Medium: Gelatin silver print
  • Dimensions: 14.1 x 12.1 cm. (5 9/16 x 4 3/4 in.)
  • Classification: Photographs
  • Credit Line: Purchase, Harriette and Noel Levine and Raphael and Jane Bernstein Gifts, 1986
  • Object Number: 1986.1071
  • Curatorial Department: Photographs

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