History & Criticism - General & Miscellaneous Photography, Individual Photographers & Professionals, Modernism & "New Vision" Photography, Art - General & Miscellaneous, German Art, Modern Art
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Overview
Although recognized today as a pioneer in constructivist art, kinetic sculpture, and graphic design, the Hungarian artist Laszlo Moholy-Nagy (1895-1946) made his most important contribution to twentieth-century art in photography. Picturing Modernism is the first comprehensive treatment of the photographs and theoretical writing of this pivotal figure in modernist photography. Eleanor Hight rejects the traditional approach to modernist photography in which Moholy is seen as merely applying formalist means to his subject matter. Instead, her penetrating study focuses on his intensive program to develop a visual language, which he called the "New Vision," to explore and image the modern world. She examines such issues as the relationship between his theory and Russian formalist criticism, the impact of contemporary physics on his use of light in abstract photography, the new concepts of architectural space that informed his photographs of buildings, and his visual scrutiny of modern urban society. After several years an exile in Berlin, Moholy was invited by the architect Walter Gropius to teach at the Bauhaus from 1923 to 1928, the most fertile period of Moholy's career. His work from this period, Hight observes, represents the first attempt by an artist of the modern movement to develop a cohesive theory of photography and to propose a broad, brilliantly innovative set of applications for photography, film, and light equipment.Editorials
Booknews
Laszlo Moholy-Nagy (1895-1946) has previously received attention for his relationship to the constructivist movement and for his contributions as a teacher at both the original and New Bauhaus schools, but this study is devoted to Moholy as an art photographer and theorist. In identifying the primary concepts and influences in his work, as well as recovering the contexts in which the images were first invented and displayed, Hight aims to break through the barrier of antimodernist criticism to re-examine this artist and, in a larger sense, modernist culture in Weimar Germany. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)Book Details
Published
May 2, 1995
Publisher
Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, c1995.
Pages
269
Format
Hardcover
ISBN
9780262082327