Photographs: Marcus Bunyan. ‘Tell Me Why’

from the series Travelling the wonderful loneliness 2019-2024

March 2024

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Untitled' 2019 from the sequence 'Tell Me Why' 2019-2024

 

 

The third sequence from my new series.

Urban wandering, or travel as Hadjicostis writes, “more than any other activity
cultivates the art of asking questions.“1

During 2019 I took a photographic journey through Europe. The trip was an ascetic experience, hardly talking to anyone for 2 months, immersed in photography, taking almost 10,000 photographs on three digital cameras. I have whittled these photographs down to around 120 images in four sequences.

This sequence, Tell Me Why, is one of the four sequences in the series collectively titled Travelling the wonderful loneliness (2019-2024).

Other sequences in the series include (How I) Wish You Were Here; Material Witness; and Dark Light (all 2019-2024).

Dr Marcus Bunyan

 

1/ Nicos Hadjicostis. Destination Earth : A New Philosophy of Travel by a World-Traveler. Bamboo Leaf Press, 2016, p. 85 quoted in quoted in Olivia Schlichting. “Women in Cities & the Art of the Flaneuse,” in Urban Space & Women paper November 30, 2018, p. 11.

34 images
© Marcus Bunyan

Please click on the photographs for a larger version of the image.

 

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Elongation' 2019 from the sequence 'Tell Me Why' 2019-2024

 

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Untitled' 2019 from the sequence 'Tell Me Why' 2019-2024

 

 

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'The Red Car' 2019 from the sequence 'Tell Me Why' 2019-2024
The Red Car
Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Man in blue' 2019 from the sequence 'Tell Me Why' 2019-2024
Man in blue

 

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'The Green Man' 2019 from the sequence 'Tell Me Why' 2019-2024
The Green Man

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Clare Castle, England' 2019 from the sequence 'Tell Me Why' 2019-2024
Clare Castle, England

 

 

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Suspension' 2019 from the sequence 'Tell Me Why' 2019-2024

 

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Three cracked eggs' 2019 from the sequence 'Tell Me Why' 2019-2024
Three cracked eggs

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Untitled' 2019 from the sequence 'Tell Me Why' 2019-2024

 

 

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Silver' 2019 from the sequence 'Tell Me Why' 2019-2024

 

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Southbound Northbound' 2019 from the sequence 'Tell Me Why' 2019-2024
Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Untitled' 2019 from the sequence 'Tell Me Why' 2019-2024

  

  

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Push' 2019 from the sequence 'Tell Me Why' 2019-2024

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Catch' 2019 from the sequence 'Tell Me Why' 2019-2024
Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Untitled' 2019 from the sequence 'Tell Me Why' 2019-2024

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'The profit of industry' 2019 from the sequence 'Tell Me Why' 2019-2024
The profit of industry

 

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Untitled' 2019 from the sequence 'Tell Me Why' 2019-2024

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Rue des Ursulines, Paris' 2019 from the sequence 'Tell Me Why' 2019-2024
Rue des Ursulines, Paris

 

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Untitled' 2019 from the sequence 'Tell Me Why' 2019-2024

 

 

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Photospheres' 2019 from the sequence 'Tell Me Why' 2019-2024
Photospheres
Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'In Memory Of' 2019 from the sequence 'Tell Me Why' 2019-2024
In Memory Of
(In Memory of the forty three people who died as a result of the tragic accident at Moorgate Underground Station on the 28th February 1975)

 

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Christmas in October' 2019 from the sequence 'Tell Me Why' 2019-2024
Christmas in October

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'The Riding School, England' 2019 from the sequence 'Tell Me Why' 2019-2024
The Riding School, England

 

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'The Blue Fan' 2019 from the sequence 'Tell Me Why' 2019-2024
The Blue Fan

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'The Casualities of War' 2019 from the sequence 'Tell Me Why' 2019-2024
The Casualities of War

 

 

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Untitled' 2019 from the sequence 'Tell Me Why' 2019-2024

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Atget (colour)' 2019 from the sequence 'Tell Me Why' 2019-2024
Atget (colour)

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Untitled' 2019 from the sequence 'Tell Me Why' 2019-2024

 

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Untitled' 2019 from the sequence 'Tell Me Why' 2019-2024

 

 

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Suspension' 2019 from the sequence 'Tell Me Why' 2019-2024

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Untitled' 2019 from the sequence 'Tell Me Why' 2019-2024

 

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Self-portrait with dog' 2019 from the sequence 'Tell Me Why' 2019-2024
Self-portrait with dog

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'After (Hokusai)' 2019 from the sequence 'Tell Me Why' 2019-2024
After (Hokusai)

 

 

Photographs are available from this series for purchase. As a guide, a digital colour 16″ x 20″ print costs $1,000 plus tracked and insured shipping. For more information please see the Store web page.

 

Marcus Bunyan website

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Joyce Evans celebration

May 2019

Where: Monash Gallery of Art, Wheelers Hill
When: Monday 20 May 6-9pm

 

Joyce Evans photographer celebration… I hope many of you can attend.

A truly remarkable human being.

Marcus

 

 

If we can find out what we are… that is the artist. This goes to the core element of your being, and the core element of your enquiry remains the same.

If the core part of your life is the search for the truth then that becomes a core part of your identity for the rest of your life. It becomes embedded in your soul.


Joyce Evans

 

Jean-luc Syndikas. 'Joyce Evans' Nd

 

Michael Silver (Australian)
Joyce Evans
Nd

 

A Celebration of Joyce and her contribution to art, photography, women’s status, mentorship and philanthropy. At least 30 of her prints will be displayed. Celebrants will talk and recall in their own words experiences with Joyce and her passions. The event will be recorded and made available for non-attendees. Snacks and drinks will be available.

 

 

Monash Gallery of Art
860 Ferntree Gully Road, Wheelers Hill
Victoria 3150 Australia
Phone: + 61 3 8544 0500

Opening hours:
Tue – Fri: 10am – 5pm
Sat – Sun: 10pm – 4pm
Mon/public holidays: closed

Monash Gallery of Art website

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Exhibition: ‘Moholy-Nagy: Future Present’ at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)

Exhibition dates: 12th February – 18th June 2017

 

László Moholy-Nagy (Hungarian, 1895-1946) 'F in Field' 1920

 

László Moholy-Nagy (Hungarian, 1895-1946)
F in Field
1920
Gouache and collage on paper
8 11/16 × 6 15/16 in.
Private collection, courtesy of Kunsthandel Wolfgang Werner, Bremen/Berlin
© 2017 Hattula Moholy-Nagy/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

 

 

“To meet the manifold requirements of this age with a definite program of human values, there must come a new mentality and a new type of personality. The common denominator is the fundamental acknowledgment of human needs; the task is to recognise the moral obligation in satisfying these needs, and the aim is to produce for human needs, not for profit.”


László Moholy-Nagy in Vision in Motion, published posthumously in 1947

 

 

New vision

One of the most creative human beings of the 20th century, and one of its most persuasive artists … “pioneering painter, photographer, sculptor, and filmmaker as well as graphic, exhibition, and stage designer, who was also an influential teacher at the Bauhaus, a prolific writer, and later the founder of Chicago’s Institute of Design.”

New visual creations, new combinations of technology and art: immersive installations featuring photographic reproductions, films, slides, posters, and examples of architecture, theatre, and industrial design that attempted to achieve a Gesamtwerk (total work) that would unify art and technology with life itself. Moholy’s “belief in the power of images and the various means by which to disseminate them” presages our current technological revolution.

It’s time another of his idioms – the moral obligation to satisfy human values by producing for human needs, not for profit – is acted upon.

The aim is to produce for human needs, not for profit.

Dr Marcus Bunyan


Many thankx to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art for allowing me to publish the photographs in the posting. Please click on the photographs for a larger version of the image.

 

 

The first comprehensive retrospective of the work of László Moholy-Nagy (1895-1946) in the United States in nearly 50 years, this long overdue presentation reveals a utopian artist who believed that art could work hand-in-hand with technology for the betterment of humanity. Moholy-Nagy: Future Present examines the career of this pioneering painter, photographer, sculptor, and filmmaker as well as graphic, exhibition, and stage designer, who was also an influential teacher at the Bauhaus, a prolific writer, and later the founder of Chicago’s Institute of Design. The exhibition includes more than 250 works in all media from public and private collections across Europe and the United States, some of which have never before been shown publicly in the U.S. Also on display is a large-scale installation, the Room of the Present, a contemporary construction of an exhibition space originally conceived by Moholy-Nagy in 1930. Though never realised during his lifetime, the Room of the Present illustrates Moholy’s belief in the power of images and the various means by which to disseminate them – a highly relevant paradigm in today’s constantly shifting and evolving technological world.

 

 

Moholy-Nagy: Future Present at LACMA

An exhibition walkthrough of Moholy-Nagy: Future Present at LACMA. Mark Lee, Principal of Johnston Marklee and Carol S. Eliel, Curator of Modern Art at LACMA discuss how Johnston Marklee’s design of the exhibition dialogues with the multiple mediums that constitute Moholy-Nagy’s vast body of work.

 

László Moholy-Nagy (Hungarian, 1895-1946) 'Title unknown' 1920/1921

 

László Moholy-Nagy (Hungarian, 1895-1946)
Title unknown
1920/1921
Gouache, collage, and graphite on paper
9 5/8 × 6 3/8 in.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Gift of Kate Steinitz
© 2017 Hattula Moholy-Nagy/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
Photo © Museum Associates/LACMA

 

László Moholy-Nagy (Hungarian, 1895-1946) 'Photogram' 1941

 

László Moholy-Nagy (Hungarian, 1895-1946)
Photogram
1941
Gelatin silver photogram
28 x 36cm
The Art Institute of Chicago, Gift of Sally Petrilli, 1985
© 2016 Hattula Moholy-Nagy/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

 

László Moholy-Nagy (Hungarian, 1895-1946) '19' 1921

 

László Moholy-Nagy (Hungarian, 1895-1946)
19
1921
Oil on canvas
44 × 36 1/2 in.
Harvard Art Museums/Busch-Reisinger Museum, Gift of Sibyl Moholy-Nagy
© 2017 Hattula Moholy-Nagy/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College

 

László Moholy-Nagy (Hungarian, 1895-1946) 'Red Cross and White Balls' 1921

 

László Moholy-Nagy (Hungarian, 1895-1946)
Red Cross and White Balls
1921
Collage, ink, graphite, and watercolour on paper
8 7/16 × 11 7⁄16 in.
Museum Kunstpalast Düsseldorf
© 2017 Hattula Moholy-Nagy/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, photo © Museum Kunstpalast – Horst Kolberg – ARTOTHEK

 

László Moholy-Nagy (Hungarian, 1895-1946) 'Construction' 1922

 

László Moholy-Nagy (Hungarian, 1895-1946)
Construction
1922
Oil and graphite on panel
21 3/8 × 17 15/16 in.
Harvard Art Museums/Busch-Reisinger Museum, Gift of Lydia Dorner in memory of Dr. Alexander Dorner
© 2017 Hattula Moholy-Nagy/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College

 

László Moholy-Nagy (Hungarian, 1895-1946) 'Q' 1922/23

 

László Moholy-Nagy (Hungarian, 1895-1946)
Q
1922/23
Collage, watercolour, ink, and graphite on paper attached to carbon paper
23 3⁄16 × 18 1⁄4 in.
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund
© 2017 Hattula Moholy-Nagy/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

 

 

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) presents Moholy-Nagy: Future Present, the first comprehensive retrospective of the pioneering artist and educator László Moholy-Nagy (1895-1946) to be seen in the United States in nearly 50 years. Organised by LACMA, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, and the Art Institute of Chicago, this exhibition examines the rich and varied career of the Hungarian-born modernist. One of the most versatile figures of the twentieth century avant-garde, Moholy (as he is often called) believed in the potential of art as a vehicle for social transformation and in the value of new technologies in harnessing that potential. He was a pathbreaking painter, photographer, sculptor, designer, and filmmaker as well as a prolific writer and an influential teacher in both Germany and the United States. Among his innovations were experiments with cameraless photography; the use of industrial materials in painting and sculpture; research with light, transparency, and movement; work at the forefront of abstraction; fluidity in moving between the fine and applied arts; and the conception of creative production as a multimedia endeavour. Radical for the time, these are now all firmly part of contemporary art practice.

The exhibition includes approximately 300 works, including paintings, sculptures, drawings, collages, photographs, photograms, photomontages, films, and examples of graphic, exhibition, and theatre design. A highlight is the full-scale realisation of the Room of the Present, an immersive installation that is a hybrid of exhibition space and work of art, seen here for the first time in the United States. This work – which includes photographic reproductions, films, images of architectural and theatre design, and examples of industrial design – was conceived by Moholy around 1930 but realised only in 2009. The exhibition is installed chronologically with sections following Moholy’s career from his earliest days in Hungary through his time at the Bauhuas (1923-1928), his post-Bauhaus period in Europe, and ending with his final years in Chicago (1937-1946).

Moholy-Nagy: Future Present is co-organised by Carol S. Eliel, Curator of Modern Art, LACMA; Karole P. B. Vail, Curator, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; and Matthew S. Witkovsky, Richard and Ellen Sandor Chair and Curator, Department of Photography, Art Institute of Chicago. The exhibition’s tour began at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, continued at the Art Institute of Chicago, and concludes at LACMA.

“Moholy-Nagy is considered one of the earliest modern artists actively to engage with new materials and technologies. This spirit of experimentation connects to LACMA’s longstanding interest in and support of the relationship between art and technology, starting with its 1967-1971 Art and Technology Program and continuing with the museum’s current Art + Technology Lab,” according to Michael Govan, LACMA CEO and Wallis Annenberg Director. “This exhibition’s integrated view of Moholy’s work in numerous mediums reveals his relevance to contemporary art in our multi- and new media age.”

Moholy’s goal throughout his life was to integrate art, technology, and education for the betterment of humanity; he believed art should serve a public purpose. These goals defined the artist’s utopian vision, a vision that remained as constant as his fascination with light, throughout the many material changes in his oeuvre,” comments Carol S. Eliel, exhibition curator. “Light was Moholy’s ‘dream medium,’ and his experimentation employed both light itself and a range of industrial materials that take advantage of light.”

 

László Moholy-Nagy (Hungarian, 1895-1946) 'Photogram' 1925/28, printed 1929

 

László Moholy-Nagy (Hungarian, 1895-1946)
Photogram
1925/28, printed 1929
Gelatin silver print (enlargement from photogram) from the Giedion Portfolio
15 3/4 × 11 13/16 in.
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, museum purchase funded by the Mary Kathryn Lynch Kurtz Charitable Lead Trust, The Manfred Heiting Collection
© 2017 Hattula Moholy-Nagy/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

 

László Moholy-Nagy (Hungarian, 1895-1946) 'Photograph (Self-Portrait with Hand)' 1925/1929, printed 1940/1949

 

László Moholy-Nagy (Hungarian, 1895-1946)
Photograph (Self-Portrait with Hand)
1925/1929, printed 1940/1949
Gelatin silver print
9 5/16 × 7 in.
Galerie Berinson, Berlin
© 2017 Hattula Moholy-Nagy/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

 

László Moholy-Nagy (Hungarian, 1895-1946) 'Photogram' 1925/1926

 

László Moholy-Nagy (Hungarian, 1895-1946)
Photogram
1925/1926
Gelatin silver photogram
7 3/16 × 9 1/2 in.
Museum Folkwang, Essen
© 2017 Hattula Moholy-Nagy/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
Photo © Museum Folkwang Essen – ARTOTHEK

 

László Moholy-Nagy (Hungarian, 1895-1946) 'Photogram' 1926

 

László Moholy-Nagy (Hungarian, 1895-1946)
Photogram
1926
Gelatin silver print
9 3/8 x 7 in.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Ralph M. Parsons Fund
© 2017 Hattula Moholy-Nagy/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
Photo © Museum Associates/LACMA

 

Photogram (1926): In the 1920s Moholy was among the first artists to make photograms by placing objects – including coins, lightbulbs, flowers, even his own hand – directly onto the surface of light-sensitive paper. He described the resulting images, simultaneously identifiable and elusive, as “a bridge leading to a new visual creation for which canvas, paintbrush, and pigment cannot serve.”

 

László Moholy-Nagy (Hungarian, 1895-1946) 'Cover and design for Malerei Photographie Film (Painting Photography Film)' 1925

 

László Moholy-Nagy (Hungarian, 1895-1946)
Cover and design for Malerei Photographie Film (Painting Photography Film)
1st ed., Bauhausbücher (Bauhaus Books) 8 (Albert Langen Verlag, 1925), bound volume
9 1/16 × 7 1/16 in.
Collection of Richard S. Frary
© 2017 Hattula Moholy-Nagy/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

 

László Moholy-Nagy (Hungarian, 1895-1946) 'Once a Chicken, Always a Chicken' 1925

 

László Moholy-Nagy (Hungarian, 1895-1946)
Once a Chicken, Always a Chicken
1925
Photomontage (halftone reproductions, paper, watercolor, and grapite) on paper
15 × 19 in.
Alice Adam, Chicago
© 2017 Hattula Moholy-Nagy/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

 

 

About the artist

László Moholy-Nagy was born in Hungary in 1895. He enrolled as a law student at the University of Budapest in 1915, leaving two years later to serve as an artillery officer in the Austro-Hungarian army during World War I. He began drawing while on the war front; after his discharge in 1918 Moholy convalesced in Budapest, where he focused on painting. He was soon drawn to the cutting-edge art movements of the period, including Cubism and Futurism. Moholy moved to Vienna in 1919 before settling in Berlin in 1920, where he served as a correspondent for the progressive Hungarian magazine MA (Today).

The letters and glyphs of Dada informed Moholy’s visual art around 1920 while the hard edged geometries and utopian goals of Russian Constructivism influenced his initial forays into abstraction shortly thereafter, particularly works that explored the interaction among coloured planes, diagonals, circles, and other geometric forms. By the early 1920s Moholy had gained a reputation as an innovative artist and perceptive theorist through exhibitions at Berlin’s radical Galerie Der Sturm as well as his writings. His lifelong engagement with industrial materials and processes – including the use of metal plating, sandpaper, and various metals and plastics then newly-developed for commercial use – began at this time.

In 1923 Moholy began teaching at the Bauhaus, an avant-garde school that sought to integrate the fine and applied arts, where his colleagues included Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, and other path breaking modernists. Architect Walter Gropius, founder of the Bauhaus, invited Moholy to expand its progressive curriculum, particularly by incorporating contemporary technology into more traditional methods and materials. He also had a part in Bauhaus graphic design achievements, collaborating with Herbert Bayer on stationery, announcements, and advertising materials.

Photography was of special significance for Moholy, who believed that “a knowledge of photography is just as important as that of the alphabet. The illiterates of the future will be ignorant of the use of the camera and pen alike.” In the 1920s he was among the earliest artists to make photograms by placing objects directly onto the surface of light-sensitive paper. He also made photographs using a traditional camera, often employing exaggerated angles and plunging perspectives to capture contemporary technological marvels as well as the post-Victorian freedom of the human body in the modern world. His photographs are documentary as well as observations of texture, captured in fine gradations of light and shadow. Moholy likewise made photomontages, combining assorted elements, typically newspaper and magazine clippings, resulting in what he called a “compressed interpenetration of visual and verbal wit; weird combinations of the most realistic, imitative means which pass into imaginary spheres.” Moholy-Nagy includes the largest grouping of the artist’s photomontages ever assembled.

After leaving the Bauhaus in 1928, Moholy turned to commercial, theatre, and exhibition design as his primary means of income. This work, which reached a broad audience, was frequently collaborative and interdisciplinary by its very nature and followed from the artist’s dictum “New creative experiments are an enduring necessity.”

Even as his commercial practice was expanding, Moholy’s artistic innovations and prominence in the avant-garde persisted unabated. He continued to bring new industrial materials into his painting practice, while his research into light, transparency, and movement led to his 35 mm films documenting life in the modern city, his early involvement with colour photography for advertising, and his remarkable kinetic Light Prop for an Electric Stage of 1930. An extension of his exhibition design work, Moholy’s Room of the Present was conceived to showcase art that embodied his “new vision” – endlessly reproducible photographs, films, posters, and examples of industrial design.

Forced by the rise of Nazism to leave Germany, in 1934 Moholy moved with his family to Amsterdam, where he continued to work on commercial design and to collaborate on art and architecture projects. Within a year of arriving the family was forced to move again, this time to London. Moholy’s employment there centred around graphic design, including prominent advertising campaigns for the London Underground, Imperial Airways, and Isokon furniture. He also received commissions for a number of short, documentary influenced films while in England. In 1937, the artist accepted the invitation (arranged through his former Bauhaus colleague Walter Gropius) of the Association of Arts and Industries to found a design school in Chicago, which he called the New Bauhaus – American School of Design. Financial difficulties led to its closure the following year, but Moholy reopened it in 1939 as the School of Design (subsequently the Institute of Design, today part of the Illinois Institute of Technology). Moholy transmitted his populist ethos to the students, asking that they “see themselves as designers and craftsmen who will make a living by furnishing the community with new ideas and useful products.”

Despite working full-time as an educator and administrator, Moholy continued his artistic practice in Chicago. His interest in light and shadow found a new outlet in Plexiglas hybrids of painting and sculpture, which he often called Space Modulators and intended as “vehicles for choreographed luminosity.” His paintings increasingly involved biomorphic forms and, while still abstract, were given explicitly autobiographical or narrative titles – the Nuclear paintings allude to the horror of the atomic bomb, while the Leuk paintings refer to the cancer that would take his life in 1946. Moholy’s goal throughout his life was to integrate art, technology, and education for the betterment of humanity. “To meet the manifold requirements of this age with a definite program of human values, there must come a new mentality,” he wrote in Vision in Motion, published posthumously in 1947. “The common denominator is the fundamental acknowledgment of human needs; the task is to recognise the moral obligation in satisfying these needs, and the aim is to produce for human needs, not for profit.”

 

László Moholy-Nagy (Hungarian, 1895-1946) 'AL 3' 1926

 

László Moholy-Nagy (Hungarian, 1895-1946)
AL 3
1926
Oil, industrial paint, and graphite on aluminium
15 3/4 × 15 3/4 in.
Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena, California, The Blue Four Galka Scheyer Collection
© 2017 Hattula Moholy-Nagy/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

 

László Moholy-Nagy (Hungarian, 1895-1946) 'Photograph (Berlin Radio Tower)' 1928/1929

 

László Moholy-Nagy (Hungarian, 1895-1946)
Photograph (Berlin Radio Tower)
1928/1929
Gelatin silver print
14 3/16 × 10 in.
The Art Institute of Chicago, Julien Levy Collection, Special Photography Acquisition Fund
© 2017 Hattula Moholy-Nagy/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
Digital image © The Art Institute of Chicago

 

Photograph (Berlin Radio Tower) (1928/29): Moholy used a traditional camera to take photos that often employ exaggerated angles and plunging perspectives to capture contemporary technological marvels such as the Berlin Radio Tower, which was completed in 1926. This photograph epitomises Moholy’s concept of art working hand-in-hand with technology to create new ways of seeing the world – his “new vision.”

 

László Moholy-Nagy (Hungarian, 1895-1946) 'Photograph (Light Prop)' 1930

 

László Moholy-Nagy (Hungarian, 1895-1946)
Photograph (Light Prop for an Electric Stage)
1930
Gelatin silver print
9 7/16 × 7 1/8 in.
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
© 2017 Hattula Moholy-Nagy/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

 

 

A short documentation from the replica of Moholy-Nagy’s Light Space Modulator in Van Abbe Museum in Eindhoven, Holland

 

 

Làslò Moholy Nagy film
1930

 

László Moholy-Nagy (Hungarian, 1895-1946) 'Photograph (Light Prop)' c. 1930

 

László Moholy-Nagy (Hungarian, 1895-1946)
Photograph (Light Prop for an Electric Stage)
c. 1930
Gelatin silver print
14 3/4 × 10 3/4 in.
The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Gift of the artist
© 2017 Hattula Moholy-Nagy/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
Digital image © The Museum of Modern Art / licensed by SCALA / Art Resource, NY

 

Installation view of Room 2, designed by László Moholy-Nagy, of the German section of the annual salon of the Society of Decorative Artists, Paris, May 14-July 13, 1930

 

Installation view of Room 2, designed by László Moholy-Nagy, of the German section of the annual salon of the Society of Decorative Artists, Paris, May 14-July 13, 1930
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin
© 2017 Hattula Moholy-Nagy/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
Photo: Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin

 

László Moholy-Nagy (Hungarian, 1895-1946) 'Room of the Present' 1930, constructed 2009

 

László Moholy-Nagy (Hungarian, 1895-1946)
Room of the Present
Constructed 2009 from plans and other documentation, dated 1930
Mixed media
Inner dimensions: 137 3/4 x 218 7/8 x 318 3/4 in.
Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, 2953
© 2017 Hattula Moholy-Nagy/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
Photography by Peter Cox, Eindhoven, The Netherlands

 

The Room of the Present is an immersive installation featuring photographic reproductions, films, slides, posters, and examples of architecture, theatre, and industrial design, including an exhibition copy of Moholy’s kinetic Light Prop for an Electric Stage (1930). The Room exemplifies Moholy’s desire to achieve a Gesamtwerk (total work) that would unify art and technology with life itself. A hybrid between exhibition space and work of art, it was originally conceived around 1930 but realised only in 2009, based on the few existing plans, drawings, and related correspondence Moholy left behind.

 

László Moholy-Nagy (Hungarian, 1895-1946) 'Construction AL6 (Konstruktion AL6)' 1933-1934

 

László Moholy-Nagy (Hungarian, 1895-1946)
Construction AL6 (Konstruktion AL6)
1933-1934
Oil and incised lines on aluminum
60 × 50cm
IVAM, Institut Valencià d’Art Modern, Generalitat
© 2016 Hattula Moholy-Nagy/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

 

László Moholy-Nagy (Hungarian, 1895-1946) 'CH BEATA I' 1939

 

László Moholy-Nagy (Hungarian, 1895-1946)
CH BEATA I
1939
Oil and graphite on canvas
46 7/8 × 47 1/8 in.
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Founding Collection
© 2017 Hattula Moholy-Nagy/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
Photo © Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York, photography by Kristopher McKay

 

László Moholy-Nagy (Hungarian, 1895-1946) 'Photograph (Light Modulator in Motion)' 1943

 

László Moholy-Nagy (Hungarian, 1895-1946)
Photograph (Light Modulator in Motion)
1943
Gelatin silver print
6 9/16 x 4 7/16 in.
George Eastman Museum, Rochester, New York, purchase with funds provided by Eastman Kodak Company
© 2017 Hattula Moholy-Nagy/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

 

László Moholy-Nagy (Hungarian, 1895-1946) 'Photograph (Light Modulator in Repose)' 1943

 

László Moholy-Nagy (Hungarian, 1895-1946)
Photograph (Light Modulator in Repose)
1943
Gelatin silver print
6 7/16 x 4 1/2 in.
George Eastman Museum, Purchased with funds provided by Eastman Kodak Company
© 2017 Hattula Moholy-Nagy/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

 

László Moholy-Nagy (Hungarian, 1895-1946) 'Vertical Black, Red, Blue' 1945

 

László Moholy-Nagy (Hungarian, 1895-1946)
Vertical Black, Red, Blue
1945
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, purchased with funds provided by Alice and Nahum Lainer, the Ducommun and Gross Acquisition Fund, the Fannie and Alan Leslie Bequest, and the Modern and Contemporary Art Council, as installed in Moholy-Nagy: Future Present at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art
© 2017 Hattula Moholy-Nagy/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, photo
© 2017 Museum Associates/LACMA

 

László Moholy-Nagy (Hungarian, 1895-1946) 'Space Modulator CH for R1' 1942

 

László Moholy-Nagy (Hungarian, 1895-1946)
Space Modulator CH for R1
1942
Oil and incised lines on Formica
62 3/16 × 25 9/16 in.
Hattula Moholy-Nagy, Ann Arbor, Michigan
© 2017 Hattula Moholy-Nagy/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
Photography by Peter Schälchli

 

 

Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)
5905 Wilshire Boulevard (at Fairfax Avenue)
Los Angeles, CA, 90036
Phone: 323 857 6000

Opening hours:
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday: 11am – 5 pm
Friday: 11am – 8pm
Saturday, Sunday: 10am – 7pm
Closed Wednesday

LACMA website

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Exhibition: ‘Kurt Kranz: Programming of Beauty’ at the Bauhaus Dessau, Berlin

Exhibition marking the 100th birthday of Kurt Kranz
19th November 2010 – 29th May 2011

 

Kurt Kranz. 'Perspective' 1931

 

Kurt Kranz (German, 1910-1997)
Perspective
1931
Ingrid Kranz / Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau
Foto: Lars Lohrisch / Abdruck mit Genehmigung der Kunsthalle

 

 

One of the great pleasures of publishing this archive is that I get to research the life of an artist whose work I never knew before. Kurt Kranz is one such artist.

Marcus

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Many thankx to the the Bauhaus Dessau for allowing me to publish the photographs in the posting. Please click on the photograph for a larger version of the image.

 

Kurt Kranz. 'Vereinsamung' Dessau 1930

 

Kurt Kranz (German, 1910-1997)
Vereinsamung (Isolation)
Dessau
1930
Ingrid Kranz / Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau
Leihgeber: Kunsthalle Bremen

 

Installation photograph of 'Programming of Beauty' by Kurt Kranz at the Bauhaus Dessau

 

Installation photograph of Programming of Beauty by Kurt Kranz at the Bauhaus Dessau

 

Kurt Kranz. 'Versinkende' (Sinking one) 1931

 

Kurt Kranz (German, 1910-1997)
Versinkende (Sinking one)
1931
Ingrid Kranz / Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau

 

Kurt Kranz. 'Persischer Garten' (Persian garden) 1970

 

Kurt Kranz (German, 1910-1997)
Persischer Garten (Persian garden)
1970
Ingrid Kranz / Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau
Foto: Uwe Jacobshagen

 

 

The Bauhaus Dessau dedicates a comprehensive exhibition to the painter, graphic designer and photographer Kurt Kranz to mark his 100th birthday. In 1930, the then twenty-year-old lithographer came from Bielefeld to study at the Bauhaus Dessau, where he soon established himself as a pioneer of serial and generative methods. With his avant-garde work, Kranz’s methods anticipated those of later generations.

Inspired by a lecture by László Moholy-Nagy, Kurt Kranz came to the Bauhaus Dessau in April 1930. In Walter Peterhans’s photography class, Kranz began to experiment with photographic techniques and created some of the most striking abstract picture series to emerge from the Bauhaus. Alienated and abstracted faces and hands appear repeatedly in his dynamic picture series. These show Kranz’s early affinity for film as, page for page, the abstract forms interact with one another. Kranz drafted his first concepts for abstract films at the Bauhaus, although he was first able to realise these decades later in 1972.

The exhibition to mark the artist’s 100th birthday shows works from Kranz’s Bauhaus years and his later work as an advertising graphic designer, and focuses on a selection of his large picture cycles. Strikingly diverse leporellos dating from the 1960s onwards take centre stage, as do the so-called “Matrix-und Schiebebilder”

Text from the Bauhaus Dessau website

 

Kurt Kranz. 'Selbstporträt en face (objektives Foto)' (Self-portrait with face (objective photo)) 1931

 

Kurt Kranz (German, 1910-1997)
Selbstporträt en face (objektives Foto) (Self-portrait with face (objective photo))
1931
Ingrid Kranz / Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau

 

Kurt Kranz (German, 1910-1997) 'Rasterfoto' (Raster photograph) 1932

 

Kurt Kranz (German, 1910-1997)
Rasterfoto (Raster photograph)
1932
Ingrid Kranz / Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau

 

Kurt Kranz. 'Schwarz : Weiß' (Black: White) 1928-29

 

Kurt Kranz (German, 1910-1997)
Schwarz: Weiß (Black: White)
1928-1929
Ingrid Kranz / Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau
Privatbesitz

 

Kurt Kranz. 'Schwarz : Weiß' (Black: White) 1928-29

 

Kurt Kranz (German, 1910-1997)
Schwarz: Weiß (Black: White)
1928-1929
Ingrid Kranz / Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau
Privatbesitz

 

Kurt Kranz. 'Schwarz : Weiß' (Black: White) 1928-29

 

Kurt Kranz (German, 1910-1997)
Schwarz: Weiß (Black: White)
1928-1929
Ingrid Kranz / Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau
Privatbesitz

 

Kurt Kranz. 'Schrift Entwurf aus Satzmaterial' (Writing draft from sentence material) Dessau 1931

 

Kurt Kranz (German, 1910-1997)
Schrift Entwurf aus Satzmaterial (Writing draft from sentence material)
Dessau
1931
Ingrid Kranz / Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau

 

Kurt Kranz. Aus der Serie "Sieben Schritte zum symmetrischen Oval"' (From the series "Seven steps to the symmetrical Oval") 1982

 

Kurt Kranz (German, 1910-1997)
Aus der Serie “Sieben Schritte zum symmetrischen Oval” (From the series “Seven steps to the symmetrical Oval”)
1982
Ingrid Kranz / Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau
Foto: Uwe Jacobshagen

 

Kurt Kranz. 'Augenreihe' (Eye rows) 1931

 

Kurt Kranz (German, 1910-1997)
Augenreihe (Eye rows)
1931 (montiert 1981) (1931 (1981 install))
Ingrid Kranz / Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau
Leihgeber: Kunsthalle Bremen

 

Kurt Kranz. 'Mund-Reihen' (Mouth rows) 1931

 

Kurt Kranz (German, 1910-1997)
Mund-Reihen (Mouth rows)
1931
Ingrid Kranz / Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau
Leihgeber: Kunsthalle Bremen
Foto: Ingrid Kranz, Wedel

 

 

Bauhaus Dessau
Gropiusalle 38, Dessau, Germany

Opening hours:
Tue – Sun 10am – 6pm

Bauhaus Dessau website

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The work of Eric Tabuchi

April 2009

 

Eric Tabuchi. 'Station #1' 2002

 

Eric Tabuchi (French, b. 1959)
Station #1 from the book Twentysix Abandoned Gas Stations
2002

 

 

One of my favourite artists at the moment is Frenchman Eric Tabuchi. I don’t know a lot about him as there is only an exhibition list on his website and no other details but this does not matter. His work speaks for him. Taken in simple formalist objective style his colour photographs tell it like it is, speaking the images of existence in a clear and precise manner. His work ‘en serie’ are conceptually based but the images themselves are straight forward, images that depict the ironies and degradations of environments and artefacts without moral judgement. His photographs have links back to the formalist style of the German Bernd and Hiller Becher whose work has influenced many contemporary photographers (including Andreas Gursky, Candid Hofer, Thomas Ruff and Thomas Struth amongst others).

Tabuchi’s latest artist book Twentysix Abandoned Gas Stations is a contemporary reprise on the very first modern artist’s book Twentysix Gasoline Stations produced by Ed Ruscha in 1963. Using minimalist notions of repetitive sequence and seriality Tabuchi addresses a contemporary landscape full of abandoned technologies, toxic environments and architectural wastelands foretelling the badlands of future worlds. As in all his bodies of work the body of the human is absent, the sense of corporeal distance from object to viewer devastating. His constructions, both photographic and environmental, speak eloquently to the human present, presence absence.

He is a photographer to remember.

Dr Marcus Bunyan

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Many thankx to Eric Tabuchi for allowing me to publish the photographs in the posting. Please click on the photographs for a larger version of the image.

 

Eric Tabuchi. 'Station #21' 2008

 

Eric Tabuchi (French, b. 1959)
Station #21 from the book Twentysix Abandoned Gas Stations
2008

 

Eric Tabuchi. 'Station #22' 2006

 

Eric Tabuchi (French, b. 1959)
Station #22 from the book Twentysix Abandoned Gas Stations
2006

 

Eric Tabuchi. 'Stock Options #3' from the Monument series 2007

 

Eric Tabuchi (French, b. 1959)
Stock Options #3 from the Monument series
2007

 

Eric Tabuchi. 'Two Windows' from the Road Signs series 2006

 

Eric Tabuchi (French, b. 1959)
Two Windows from the Road Signs series
2006

 

Eric Tabuchi. 'Untitled' from the Untitled Landscape series 2005

 

Eric Tabuchi (French, b. 1959)
Untitled from the Untitled Landscape series
2005

 

Eric Tabuchi. 'Untitled' from the Various Ruins series 2007

 

Eric Tabuchi (French, b. 1959)
Untitled from the Various Ruins series
2007

 

Eric Tabuchi. 'Untitled' from the Work in Progress series 2007

 

Eric Tabuchi (French, b. 1959)
Untitled from the Work in Progress series
2007

 

 

Book: Twentysix Abandoned Gas Stations

Eric Tabuchi website

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Exhibition: ‘Edward Burtynsky: The Residual Landscapes’ at The Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies, Banff, Alberta

Exhibition dates: 7th February – 26th April 2009

 

Edward Burtynsky. 'Silver Lake Operations #1, Lake Lefroy, Western Australia 2007'

 

Edward Burtynsky (Canadian, b. 1955)
Silver Lake Operations #1, Lake Lefroy, Western Australia 2007
2007

 

 

One of the great photographers of the world.

Enjoy some of his images and for more photographs please visit his website.

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Many thankx to The Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies for allowing me to publish the photographs in the posting. Please click on the photographs for a larger version of the image.

 

Edward Burtynsky. 'Tanggu Port, Tianjin, China 2005'

 

Edward Burtynsky (Canadian, b. 1955)
Tanggu Port, Tianjin, China 2005
2005

 

 

Nature transformed through industry is a predominant theme in my work. I set course to intersect with a contemporary view of the great ages of man; from stone, to minerals, oil, transportation, silicon, and so on. To make these ideas visible I search for subjects that are rich in detail and scale yet open in their meaning. Recycling yards, mine tailings, quarries and refineries are all places that are outside of our normal experience, yet we partake of their output on a daily basis.

These images are meant as metaphors to the dilemma of our modern existence; they search for a dialogue between attraction and repulsion, seduction and fear. We are drawn by desire – a chance at good living, yet we are consciously or unconsciously aware that the world is suffering for our success. Our dependence on nature to provide the materials for our consumption and our concern for the health of our planet sets us into an uneasy contradiction. For me, these images function as reflecting pools of our times.

Edward Burtynsky quoted on The Whyte Museum website

 

Edward Burtynsky. 'Oxford Tire Pile #8, Westley, California 1999'

 

Edward Burtynsky (Canadian, b. 1955)
Oxford Tire Pile #8, Westley, California 1999
1999

 

Edward Burtynsky. 'Nickel Tailings #30, Sudbury, Ontario, 1996'

 

Edward Burtynsky (Canadian, b. 1955)
Nickel Tailings #30, Sudbury, Ontario, 1996
1996

 

Edward Burtynsky. 'Nickel Tailings #31, Sudbury, Ontario 1996'

 

Edward Burtynsky (Canadian, b. 1955)
Nickel Tailings #31, Sudbury, Ontario 1996
1996

 

Edward Burtynsky. 'Feng Jie #4, Three Gorges Dam Project, Yangtze River, 2002'

 

Edward Burtynsky (Canadian, b. 1955)
Feng Jie #4, Three Gorges Dam Project, Yangtze River, 2002
2002

 

 

These images are meant as metaphors to the dilemma of our modern existence; they search for a dialogue between attraction and repulsion, seduction and fear,” said Edward Burtynsky, photographer. “We are drawn by desire – a chance at good living, yet we are consciously or unconsciously aware that the world is suffering for our success. Our dependence on nature to provide the materials for our consumption and our concern for the health of our planet sets us into an uneasy contradiction. For me, these images function as reflecting pools of our times.

Speaking of his “Quarries” series, Burtynsky has said, “The concept of the landscape as architecture has become, for me, an act of imagination. I remember looking at buildings made of stone, and thinking, there has to be an interesting landscape somewhere out there, because these stones had to have been taken out of the quarry one block at a time. I had never seen a dimensional quarry, but I envisioned an inverted cubed architecture on the side of a hill. I went in search of it, and when I had it on my ground glass I knew that I had arrived.”

Text from The Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies

 

Edward Burtynsky. 'Shipbreaking #1, Chittagong, Bangladesh, 2000'

 

Edward Burtynsky (Canadian, b. 1955)
Shipbreaking #1, Chittagong, Bangladesh, 2000
2000

 

Edward Burtynsky. 'Bao Steel #2, Shanghai, China, 2005'

 

Edward Burtynsky (Canadian, b. 1955)
Bao Steel #2, Shanghai, China, 2005
2005

 

Edward Burtnysky. 'Iberia Quarries #3, Bencatel, Portugal, 2006'

 

Edward Burtynsky (Canadian, b. 1955)
Iberia Quarries #3, Bencatel, Portugal, 2006
2006

 

Edward Burtnysky. 'China Quarries #8, Xiamen, Fujian Province, 2004'

 

Edward Burtynsky (Canadian, b. 1955)
China Quarries #8, Xiamen, Fujian Province, 2004
2004

 

Edward Burtynsky. 'Dam #6 ,Three Gorges Dam Project, Yangtze River, 2005'

 

Edward Burtynsky (Canadian, b. 1955)
Dam #6, Three Gorges Dam Project, Yangtze River, 2005
2005

 

 

 

Trailer for the film Manufactured Landscapes in which Jennifer Baichwal documents Edward Burtynsky doing what artists do – making art, in this case photographing Bangladesh and China as he observes the “manufacturer to the world”.

 

 

Edward Burtynsky Manufactured Landscapes

 

 

The Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies
111 Bear Street, Banff, Alberta
T1L 1A3 Canada
Phone: 1 403 762 2291

Opening hours:
Thursday – Monday 11am – 5pm
Tuesday and Wednesday – CLOSED

The Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies website

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Photographs: ‘The Shape of Dreams’ series 2009

Date: February 2009

 

Marcus Bunyan. 'Airport' from the series ‘The Shape of Dreams’ 2009

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958)
Airport from the series The Shape of Dreams
2009
Silver gelatin print
© Marcus Bunyan

 

Marcus Bunyan. '... for amber waves of grain' from the series ‘The Shape of Dreams’ 2009

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958)
… for amber waves of grain from the series The Shape of Dreams
2009
Silver gelatin print
© Marcus Bunyan

 

Marcus Bunyan. 'Oakland, Berkley' from the series ‘The Shape of Dreams’ 2009

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958)
Oakland, Berkley from the series The Shape of Dreams
2009
Silver gelatin print
© Marcus Bunyan

 

Marcus Bunyan. 'Navy Base, Unidentified' from the series ‘The Shape of Dreams’ 2009

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958)
Navy Base, Unidentified from the series The Shape of Dreams
2009
Silver gelatin print
© Marcus Bunyan

 

 

Marcus Bunyan website

The Shape of Dreams series 2009

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Exhibition: ‘Man Ray: Unconcerned, but not indifferent’ at The Hague Museum of Photography, The Netherlands

Exhibition dates: 24th January 2009 – 19th April 2009

 

Man Ray. 'Self-portrait' 1924

 

Man Ray (American, 1890-1976)
Self-portrait
1924
Gelatin silver print

 

 

Man Ray (1890-1976) used his camera to turn photography into an art – no mean feat for a man who tried almost all his life to avoid being described as a ‘photographer’. He preferred to be identified with his work in other media: drawings, paintings and Dadaist ready-mades. The exhibition entitled Unconcerned, but not indifferent at the Hague Museum of Photography is a large-scale retrospective of Man Ray’s art and life. It links paintings, drawings and (of course) photographs to personal objects, images and documents drawn from his estate to paint a picture of a passionate artist and – whatever his own feelings about the description – a great photographer.

Unconcerned, but not indifferent is the first exhibition to reveal Man Ray’s complete creative process: from observations, ideas and sketches right through to the final works of art. By establishing the linkage between art and inspiration, it gives a new insight into the work of Man Ray. The three hundred plus items on display are drawn from the estate of the artist, which is managed by the Man Ray Trust. Some of them have never been exhibited since the artist’s death in 1976 while others are on show for the first time ever.

Man Ray’s real name was Emmanuel Radnitzky. He was born in Philadelphia (USA) in 1890. The family soon moved to New York, where his artistic talent became increasingly apparent. Photography was not yet his medium: Man Ray, as he would later call himself, concentrated on painting and became friendly with Dadaist artist Marcel Duchamp, who persuaded him to move to Paris (France). There, Man Ray moved in highly productive artistic circles full of Surrealists and Dadaists. He began taking photographs of his own (and other people’s) works of art and gradually became more interested in the photographic images than in the originals – which he regularly threw away or lost once he had photographed them.

By this time, commercial and art photography had become his main source of income and he was displaying an unbridled curiosity about the potential of the medium. This prompted a great urge to experiment and the discovery or rediscovery of various techniques, such as the famous ‘rayographs’ (photograms made without the use of a camera). Man Ray left Paris to escape the Nazi occupation of France and moved to Los Angeles, where he abandoned commercial photography to concentrate entirely on painting and photographic experimentation. However, his next real surge of creativity occurred only after he returned to Paris with his wife Juliet in 1951. In the last twenty-five years of his life, he regularly harked back to his earlier work and was not afraid to quote himself. In that sense, Man Ray can be seen as a true conceptual artist: the idea behind the work of art always interested him more than its eventual execution. Man Ray died in Paris in 1976 and is buried in Montparnasse. His widow, Juliet, summed up the artist’s life in the epitaph inscribed on his tombstone: Unconcerned, but not indifferent.

The exhibition examines the four separate creative phases in Man Ray’s life. Each is closely connected with the place where he was living (New York, Los Angeles or Paris), his friends at the time and the sources of inspiration around him. Using Man Ray’s artistic legacy and – perhaps more particularly – the everyday objects that were so important to him, Unconcerned, but not indifferent reveals the world as he saw it through the lens of his camera.

The exhibition is being held in cooperation with the Man Ray Trust in Long Island, New York, and La Fábrica in Madrid.

Text from the The Hague Museum of Photography

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Many thankx to The Hague Museum of Photography for allowing me to publish the photographs in the posting. Please click on the photographs for a larger version of the image.

 

Man Ray (1890-1976) 'Rayograph' 1921

 

Man Ray (American, 1890-1976)
Rayograph
1921
Gelatin silver print

 

Man Ray. 'Noire et blanche' 1926

 

Man Ray (American, 1890-1976)
Noire et blanche
1926
Gelatin silver print

 

Man Ray. 'La priere' (Prayer) 1930

 

Man Ray (American, 1890-1976)
La priere (Prayer)
1930
Gelatin silver print

 

Man Ray. 'Larmes' 1930

 

Man Ray (American, 1890-1976)
Larmes (Tears)
1930
Gelatin silver print

 

Man Ray.' Solarisation' 1931

 

Man Ray (American, 1890-1976)
Solarisation
1931
Gelatin silver print

 

Man Ray (American, 1890-1976) 'Juliet with Flower' [Juliet Browner] 1950s

 

Man Ray (American, 1890-1976)
Juliet with Flower [Juliet Browner]
1950s
Painted transparency

 

Man Ray (American, 1890-1976) 'Permanent Attraction' 1948 / c. 1971

 

Man Ray (American, 1890-1976)
Permanent Attraction
1948 / c. 1971
Wood
© Man Ray Trust/Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY/ADAGP, Paris 2018

 

'Man Ray: Unconcerned, but not indifferent' catalogue cover

 

Man Ray: Unconcerned, but not indifferent catalogue cover

 

 

The Hague Museum of Photography
Stadhouderslaan 43
2517 HV Den Haag
Phone: 31 (0)70 – 33 811 44

Opening hours:
Tuesday – Sunday, 11 – 5pm
Closed Mondays

The Hague Museum of Photography website

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