MOHOLY-NAGY: EXPERIMENT IN TOTALITY
Sibyl Moholy-Nagy
Sibyl Moholy-Nagy, Walter Gropius [Introduction]: MOHOLY-NAGY: EXPERIMENT IN TOTALITY. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1950. First edition. Octavo. Embossed brown cloth decorated in red, blue, green and black. 254 pp. 76 black and white illustrations. 4 color plates. 22 tiny neatly inked colored dots to margins [see note]. A nearly fine copy lacking the dust jacket.
Unmarked but from the library of Chicago designers Morton and Mille Goldsholl. Ms. Goldsholl was a student of Moholy-Nagy's at the School of Design from 1943 - 1945; four examples of her work were reproduced in VISION IN MOTION [Chicago: Theobald, 1947]. In this edition she neatly noted in the text margins 22 instances of Moholy's theories of art and his thoughts of life in Chicago. Interesting marginalia from a key figure in the Post-war Chicago design community.
6.5 x 9.5 hardcover book with 254 pages and 80 illustrations, including 4 color plates of Moholy-Nagy's work as a painter, typographer, photographer, stage designer and architect. Introduction by Walter Gropius. Written by Sibyl Moholy-Nagy, Laszlo's wife and lifetime collaborator, she witnessed many of the defining moments of the Bauhaus movement and its migration to the United States and its continuation as the Chicago New Bauhaus and Institute of Design. An excellent first-person account-- recommended.
As a painter, typographer, photographer, stage designer, and architect, Moholy was one of the most creative intelligences of our time. -- Herbert Read.
Laszlo Moholy-Nagy (Hungarian, 1895-1946) was born in Bacsbarsod, Hungary. Injured during World War I, he turned to painting and made contact with the Budapest avant-garde in 1918. In 1922, Maholy-Nagy participated in the International Dada-Constructivist Congress in Weimar and began experiments in photography with his wife Lucia. Appointed master at the Bauhaus in 1923, he made his first film, Berliner Stilleden, in 1926. Although always a painter and designer, Moholy-Nagy became a key figure in photography in Germany in the 1920's. In 1928 Moholy-Nagy left the Bauhaus and traveled to Amsterdam and London. His teachings and publications of photographic experimentations were crucial to the international development of the New Vision. In 1937 he was invited to found the New Bauhaus in Chicago by the Association of Arts and Industries. Moholy-Nagy served as teacher and director there from 1937 until his death in 1946.