MOHOLY-NAGY / FOTO-PLASTIKS
THE BAUHAUS YEARS
Julie Saul [essay]
Julie Saul [essay]: MOHOLY-NAGY / FOTO-PLASTIKS: THE BAUHAUS YEARS. New York: The Bronx Museum of the Arts, 1983. First edition. A near-fine softcover book with printed stiff wrappers and minor shelf wear including slight yellowing. Interior unmarked and very clean. Out-of-print.
10.75 x 8.5 softcover book with 66 pages and 23 b/w photographs. Published in conjunction with an exhibition of the same name: The Bronx Museum of the Arts (July 30-Sept 25, 1983).
Contents
Introduction and Acknowledgments by Luis R. Cancel
Tracking the Hungarian Leonardo by Philip Verre
Moholy-Nagy's Photographic Practice at The Bauhaus by Julie Saul
Photomontage in Russia and Germany Following World War I
Moholy-Nagy's Fotoplastiks
The Catalogue by Julie Saul
Personal Themes
Advertising and Typography
Theater and Film
Sports
Social and Political Themes
Checklist
Footnotes
Bibliography
For Moholy-Nagy, photography was of inestimable value in educating the eye in what he called "the new vision." The camera, by extending the eye's capability and through its manipulation of light could alter our traditional perceptual habits.
From the Publisher of Laszlo Moholy-Nagy¹s "60 FOTOS, 60 PHOTOS, 60 PHOTOGRAPHIES," Berlin, Klinkhart & Biermann, 1930: "Moholy was one of the first to leave petrified traditions in photography and tread new paths by extending photographic possibilities both practically and theoretically. He arrived at lasting results in the photogram and in photo-montage at a time when these forms were almost unknown."
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.