Major Retrospective of László Moholy-Nagy Opens at the ... · Major Retrospective of László Moholy-Nagy Opens at the Guggenheim Museum in New York on May 27, 2016 ... scale work

Major Retrospective of László Moholy-Nagy Opens at the Guggenheim Museum in New York on May 27, 2016 Moholy-Nagy: Future Present is organized by and will be presented at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art Exhibition: Moholy-Nagy: Future Present Venue: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1071 Fifth Avenue, New York Location: Full rotunda Dates: May 27–September 7, 2016 Media Preview: Thursday, May 26, 2016, 10 am–1 pm (NEW YORK, NY, May 26, 2015)— From May 27 to September 7, 2016, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum will present the first comprehensive retrospective in the United States in nearly fifty years of the work of pioneering artist and educator László Moholy-Nagy (1895–1946). Organized by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Moholy-Nagy: Future Present examines the full career of the utopian modernist who believed in the potential of art as a vehicle for social transformation, working hand in hand with technology. Despite Moholy-Nagy’s prominence and the visibility of his work during his lifetime, few exhibitions have conveyed the experimental nature of his work, his enthusiasm for industrial materials, and his radical innovations with movement and light. This long overdue presentation, which encompasses his multidisciplinary methodology, brings together more than 300 works drawn from public and private collections across Europe and the United States, some of which have never before been shown publicly in this country. After its debut presentation in New York, the exhibition will travel to the Art Institute of Chicago (October 2, 2016–January 3, 2017) and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (February 12–June 18, 2017). Moholy-Nagy: Future Present is co-organized by Carol S. Eliel, Curator of Modern Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art; 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 Guggenheim presentation is organized by Vail, with the assistance of Ylinka Barotto, Curatorial Assistant, and Danielle Toubrinet, Exhibition Assistant.

The New York presentation of Moholy-Nagy: Future Present is made possible by Lavazza. Funding is generously provided by David Berg Foundation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary, The Hilla von Rebay Foundation, William Talbott Hillman Foundation, Robert Lehman Foundation, and Sotheby’s. The Leadership Committee for the exhibition, chaired by Peter and Dede Lawson-Johnston, is gratefully acknowledged for its support, with special thanks to Stefan Edlis and Gael Neeson, Rachel and Jean-Pierre Lehmann, Rowland Weinstein, Fundación Almine y Bernard Ruiz-Picasso para el Arte, and Achim Moeller. Additional funding is also provided by the National Endowment for the Arts. Moholy-Nagy: Future Present provides an opportunity to examine the full career of this influential Bauhaus teacher, founder of Chicago’s Institute of Design, and versatile artist who paved the way for increasingly interdisciplinary and multimedia work and practice. Among his radical innovations were his experiments with cameraless photographs (which he dubbed “photograms”); use of industrial materials in painting and sculpture that was unconventional for his time; researching with light, transparency, and movement; his work at the forefront of abstraction; and his ability to move fluidly between the fine and applied arts. The exhibition is presented chronologically up the Guggenheim’s rotunda and features collages, drawings, ephemera, films, paintings, photograms, photographs, photomontages, and sculptures. The exception to the sequential order is Room of the Present (Raum der Gegenwart) in the High Gallery, a contemporary fabrication of a space originally conceived by Moholy-Nagy in 1930 but never realized in his lifetime. Constructed by designers Kai-Uwe Hemken and Jakob Gebert, the large-scale work contains photographic reproductions, films, slides, documents, and replicas of architecture, theater, and industrial design, including a 2006 replica of his kinetic Light Prop for an Electric Stage (Lichtrequisit einer elektrischen Bühne, 1930). Room of the Present illustrates the artist’s belief in the power of images and his approach to the various means with which to view them—a highly relevant paradigm in today’s constantly shifting and evolving technological world. Room of the Present will be on display at all three exhibition venues and for the first time in the United States. The Guggenheim installation is designed by Kelly Cullinan, Senior Exhibition Designer, and is inspired by Moholy-Nagy’s texts on space and his concept of a “spatial kaleidoscope” as applied to the experience of walking up the ramps. Born in 1895 in Austria-Hungary (now southern Hungary), Moholy-Nagy moved to Vienna briefly and then to Berlin in 1920, where he encountered Dada artists, whose distinctive visual attributes of the urban industrial landscape had already entered his work. He was also influenced by the Constructivists, and exhibited work on several occasions at Berlin’s Der Sturm gallery. During this time, Moholy-Nagy experimented with metal constructions, photograms, and enamel paintings. At the same moment, in his ongoing quest to depict light and transparency, he painted abstract canvases composed of floating geometric shapes. While teaching at the Bauhaus in Weimar and then Dessau, he and Walter Gropius pioneered the Bauhaus Books series, which advanced Moholy-Nagy’s belief that arts education and administration went hand in hand with the practice of art making. Around this period, the artist became temporarily disenchanted with the limitations of traditional painting. Photography took on greater importance for him, and he described the photogram as “a bridge leading to new visual creation for which canvas, paint-brush and pigment cannot serve.” He fashioned photomontages by combining photographs (usually found) and newspaper images into absurd, satirical, or fantastical narratives. When he moved back to Berlin in 1928, he enjoyed success as a commercial artist, exhibition and stage designer, and typographer, examples of which will be on display in Moholy-Nagy: Future Present. Adolf

Hitler’s rise to power made life increasingly difficult for the avant-garde in Germany; thus, in 1934 Moholy-Nagy moved with his family to the Netherlands and then to London. Once he moved to Chicago in 1937, he never returned to Europe. Moholy-Nagy immigrated to Chicago to become founding director of the New Bauhaus, known today as the Institute of Design at the Illinois Institute of Technology. He also made some of his most original and experimental work during this time, pursuing his longtime fascination with light, shadow, transparency, and motion. He continued to make photograms, created his Space Modulators (hybrids of painting and sculpture made from Plexiglas), and pioneered 35 mm color slide photography, shown as projections in the exhibition. He gave his full attention to American exhibition venues before his untimely death of leukemia in 1946, showing nearly three dozen times across the United States—including in four solo shows. Moholy-Nagy was a central figure in the history of the Guggenheim Museum. His work was included in the museum’s founding collection, and he held a special place at the Museum of Non-Objective Painting, the forerunner of the Guggenheim Museum. He was among the first artists director Hilla Rebay exhibited and collected in depth, and the museum presented a memorial exhibition shortly after his death. Moholy-Nagy: Future Present highlights the artist’s interdisciplinary and investigative approach, migrating from the school to the museum or gallery space, consistently pushing toward the Gesamtwerk, the total work, which he sought to achieve throughout his lifetime. Exhibition Catalogue Moholy-Nagy: Future Present is accompanied by an extensively researched catalogue examining the work of the pioneering artist. Featuring more than 300 works illustrated in color, it is the most comprehensive English-language book on Moholy-Nagy in over thirty years and offers an integrated presentation of his works across mediums, including painting, sculpture, photography, graphic design, and film. The exhibition curators and other scholars provide new insights into Moholy-Nagy's methods and his influence. Essays examine the confluence of writing, arts administration, and art making in the artist’s practice; his use of materials, incorporating intensive conservation research and analysis; and his impact on redefining the role of the artist in society. Particular emphasis is given to his American years and his leadership of the Institute of Design in Chicago. The catalogue will be available for purchase at guggenheim.org/store (hardcover: $65, softcover: $45). Education and Public Programs A range of programs featuring film, music, and explorations into László Moholy-Nagy’s resonance today is offered in conjunction with Moholy-Nagy: Future Present. Highlights are listed below, with full information and tickets available at guggenheim.org/calendar. Film Films to Come: Moholy-Nagy and the Moving Image Fridays–Saturdays, June 3–August 26, 11 am This film program includes documentaries about László Moholy-Nagy, Bauhaus films, selections of abstract cinema, and works by contemporary filmmakers inspired by the artist.

Panel Moholy-Nagy: Art for a New Century Wednesday, June 22, 6:30 pm Bringing together scholars, curators, and artists, this program explores how László Moholy-Nagy’s experimental and multifaceted practice resonates today more than ever. Presentations by Oliver Botar (University of Manitoba), Carol S. Eliel (Los Angeles County Museum of Art co-organizing curator), and artist Barbara Kasten are followed by a panel discussion. Moderated by Karole P. B. Vail, Guggenheim co-organizing curator. $15, $10 members, free for students with RSVP. For Middle Schoolers Game Design Workshop Wednesday, June 29, 1–5 pm Grades 5–8. Just as László Moholy-Nagy was challenged to create dynamic compositions through various materials and new technologies, participants will design games through hands-on activities and by using Gamestar Mechanic, a video game creation tool. Students will also learn how to submit their games as part of the 2016 National STEM Video Game Challenge. Free with RSVP. Created in collaboration with the 2016 STEM Challenge, The Institute of Museum and Library Services, The Joan Ganz Cooney Center, and E-Line Media. Performance Moholy-Nagy: Optical Sound Thursday, July 21, 7 pm In response to what László Moholy-Nagy referred to as an “opto-acoustic alphabet,” this program highlights the fusion of modulated sound and light. A large-scale multichannel presentation of innovative Hungarian electronic music from the 1970s is followed by a performance by a contemporary practitioner of intermedia work that exemplifies Moholy-Nagy’s dream of a “groove script.” $30, $20 members, $15 students. Tours Curator’s Eye Friday, June 3, 12 pm Karole P. B. Vail, Curator, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Conservator’s Eye Friday, July 29, 12 pm Julie Barten, Senior Conservator, Collections and Exhibitions, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and contributor to the exhibition catalogue About the Solomon R. Guggenheim MuseumFounded in 1937, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation is dedicated to promoting the understanding and appreciation of art, primarily of the modern and contemporary periods, through exhibitions, education programs, research initiatives, and publications. The Guggenheim network that began in the 1970s when the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, was joined by the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, has since expanded to include the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao

(opened 1997) and the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi (currently in development). The Guggenheim Foundation continues to forge international collaborations that celebrate contemporary art, architecture, and design within and beyond the walls of the museum, including the Guggenheim UBS MAP Global Art Initiative and The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Chinese Art Initiative. More information about the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation can be found at guggenheim.org. VISITOR INFORMATION

Admission: Adults $25, students/seniors (65+) $18, members and children under 12 free. The Guggenheim’s free app, available with admission or by download to personal devices, offers an enhanced visitor experience. The app features content on special exhibitions as well as access to more than 1,500 works in the Guggenheim’s permanent collection. Additionally, information about the museum’s landmark building is available in English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish. Verbal Description guides for select exhibitions are also included for visitors who are blind or have low vision. The Guggenheim app is supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies. Museum Hours: Sun–Wed, 10 am–5:45 pm; Fri, 10 am–5:45 pm; Sat, 10 am–7:45 pm; closed Thurs. On Saturdays, beginning at 5:45 pm, the museum hosts Pay What You Wish. For general information, call 212 423 3500 or visit the museum online at: guggenheim.org guggenheim.org/social #MoholyNagy For publicity images, visit guggenheim.org/pressimages. User ID: photoservice Password: presspass #1435 May 26, 2016 (Updated from April 15, 2016) FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION Sarah Eaton, Director of Media and Public Relations Kris Parker, Senior Publicist 212 423 3840 [email protected]

Moholy-Nagy: Future Present Exhibition-related Public Programs at the Guggenheim Museum In conjunction with the exhibition Moholy-Nagy: Future Present, the Guggenheim presents the following public programs, including a robust film program highlighting the Bauhaus and abstract cinema, a performative exploration of László Moholy-Nagy’s concept of an “opto-acoustic alphabet,” panel discussions, and more. FILMS Films to Come: Moholy-Nagy and the Moving Image Fridays–Saturdays, June 3–August 26, 11 am–5:45 pm This film program includes documentaries about László Moholy-Nagy and the Bauhaus, selections of abstract cinema, works by contemporary filmmakers inspired by the artist, and William Cameron Menzies’s 1936 classic Things to Come, for which Moholy-Nagy was commissioned to make special effects. 11 am: Moholy-Nagy László Moholy-Nagy: Permanent Experiment, Jens Schmohl, 1998; 60 min 12 pm: The Bauhaus Bauhaus in America, Judith Pearlman, 1995; 85 min The Triadic Ballet: A Film in Three Parts Base on the Dances by Oskar Schlemmer, Bavaria Film GmbH, 1970; 31 min 2 pm: Abstract Film and The Dynamic of the Metropolis Diagonal Symphony, Viking Eggeling, 1924; 7 min Film Study, Hans Richter, 1926; 4 min Dynamic of the Big City, Berlin University of the Arts, 2005-06; 7 min Dynamic of the Metropolis, Schroeter and Berger, 2006; 20 min

2:40 pm: Things to Come Things to Come, Graham Ellard and Stephen Johnstone, 2011; 6 min Things to Come 1936–2012, Jan Tichy, 2012; 5 1/2 min H. G. Wells’ Things to Come, William Cameron Menzies, 1936; 97 min

Free with museum admission. For more information, visit guggenheim.org/filmscreenings (lineup and schedule subject to change). PANEL Moholy-Nagy: Art for a New Century Wednesday, June 22, 6:30 pm Oliver Botar (University of Manitoba), Carol S. Eliel (Los Angeles County Museum of Art co-organizing curator), and artist Barbara Kasten discuss how László Moholy-Nagy’s experimental and multifaceted practice resonates today more than ever. Organized by Karole P. B. Vail, Guggenheim exhibition curator. Exhibition viewing and a reception follows. $15, $10 members, free for students with RSVP. For more information, visit guggenheim.org/moholy-programs. PERFORMANCE Moholy-Nagy: Optical Sound Thursday, July 21, 7 pm In response to what László Moholy-Nagy referred to as an “opto-acoustic alphabet,” this program highlights the fusion of modulated sound and light. To start the evening, program curators R. Luke DuBois and Zach Layton contextualize the event with a presentation in the museum's Peter B. Lewis Theater, followed by a multimedia performance and turntable concert. The evening culminates on the museum’s rotunda floor with a large-scale multichannel presentation of innovative Hungarian electronic music from the 1970s. Moholy-Nagy: Optical Sound aims to provide an experience for visitors that exemplifies Moholy-Nagy’s dream of a “groove script.” $30, $20 members, $15 students. Includes an exhibition viewing with cash bar. For more information, visit guggenheim.org/moholy-programs. This public program is co-presented with the Balassi Institute Hungarian Cultural Center New York. TOURS Fridays, June 3 and July 29, 12 pm Gallery tours of Moholy-Nagy: Future Present are led by a Guggenheim conservator and curator. June 3: Curator’s Eye* Karole P. B. Vail, Curator, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum July 29: Conservator’s Eye Julie Barten, Senior Conservator, Collections and Exhibitions, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Free with museum admission. For more information, visit guggenheim.org/moholy-programs. *Tour interpreted in American Sign Language (ASL).

guggenheim.org/social #MoholyNagy For publicity images, visit guggenheim.org/pressimages. User ID: photoservice Password: presspass #1444 June 2, 2016 FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION, CONTACT: Molly Stewart, Publicist Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum 212 423 3840 [email protected]

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Moholy-Nagy: Future PresentMay 27–September 7, 2016Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

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1 | Moholy-Nagy: Future Present

László Moholy-NagyDual Form with Chromium Rods, 1946Plexiglas and chrome-plated brass, 92.7 × 121.6 × 55.9 cmSolomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Founding Collection 48.1149 © 2016 Hattula Moholy-Nagy/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New YorkInstallation view: Moholy-Nagy: Future Present, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, May 27–September 7, 2016. Photo: David Heald © Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation

Installation view: Moholy-Nagy: Future Present, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, May 27–September 7, 2016. Photo: David Heald © Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation









László Moholy-NagyNickel Sculpture with Spiral, 1921Nickel-plated iron, welded, 35.9 x 17.5 x 23.8 cmThe Museum of Modern Art, New York, Gift of Mrs. Sibyl Moholy-Nagy 1956© 2016 Hattula Moholy-Nagy/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New YorkInstallation view: Moholy-Nagy: Future Present, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, May 27–September 7, 2016. Photo: David Heald © Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation

László Moholy-Nagy Room of the Present (Raum der Gegenwart), constructed in 2009 from plans and other documentation dated 1930. Mixed media, 442 x 586.8 x 842.8 cm. Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven. © 2016 Hattula Moholy-Nagy/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Installation view: Moholy-Nagy: Future Present, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, May 27–September 7, 2016. Photo: David Heald © Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation


László Moholy-Nagy Room of the Present (Raum der Gegenwart), constructed in 2009 from plans and other documentation dated 1930. Mixed media, 442 x 586.8 x 842.8 cm. Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven. Foreground: Light Prop for an Electric Stage (Lichtrequisit einer elektrischen Bühne), 1930. Exhibition replica, constructed in 2006, through the courtesy of Hattula Moholy-Nagy, Ann Arbor, Michigan. Metal, plastics, glass, paint, and wood, with electric motor, 151 x 70 x 70 cm. Harvard Art Muse-ums/Busch-Reisinger Museum, Hildegard von Gontard Bequest Fund © 2016 Hattula Moholy-Nagy/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Installation view: Moholy-Nagy: Future Present, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, May 27–September 7, 2016. Photo: David Heald © Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation

László Moholy-Nagy Photogram, 1926 Gelatin silver photogram , 23.8 x 17.8 cmLos Angeles County Museum of Art, Ralph M. Parsons Fund© 2016 Hattula Moholy-Nagy/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New YorkPhoto: © Museum Associates/LACMA

László Moholy-NagyA II (Construction A II), 1924Oil and graphite on canvas, 115.8 × 136.5 cmSolomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Founding Collection 43.900 © 2016 Hattula Moholy-Nagy/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

László Moholy-Nagy A 19, 1927Oil and graphite on canvas, 80 × 95.5 cmHattula Moholy-Nagy, Ann Arbor, MI© 2016 Hattula Moholy-Nagy/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York


László Moholy-NagyDual Form with Chromium Rods, 1946Plexiglas and chrome-plated brass, 92.7 × 121.6 × 55.9 cmSolomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Founding Collection 48.1149 © 2016 Hattula Moholy-Nagy/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New YorkPhoto: Kristopher McKay © Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York

László Moholy-NagyCover and design for Vision in Motion (Paul Theobald, 1947)Bound volume, 28.6 × 22.9 cm. The Hilla von Rebay Foundation Archive © 2016 Hattula Moholy-Nagy/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

László Moholy-NagyCH BEATA I, 1939Oil and graphite on canvas, 118.9 x 119.8 cmSolomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Founding Collection 48.1128© 2016 Hattula Moholy-Nagy/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

László Moholy-NagyConstruction AL6 (Konstruktion AL6), 1933–34Oil and incised lines on aluminum, 60 × 50 cmIVAM, Institut Valencià d’Art Modern, Generalitat© 2016 Hattula Moholy-Nagy/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York


László Moholy-NagyB-10 Space Modulator, 1942Oil and incised lines on Plexiglas in original framePlexiglas: 42.9 × 29.2 cm; frame: 82.9 × 67.6 cm 42.9 x 29.2 x 6 cmSolomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Founding Collection 47.1063© 2016 Hattula Moholy-Nagy/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

László Moholy-NagyPapmac, 1943Oil and incised lines on Plexiglas, in original framePlexiglas: 58.4 × 70.5 cm; frame: 91.1 × 101.9 cmPrivate collection © 2016 Hattula Moholy-Nagy/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

László Moholy-NagyPhotogram, 1941 Gelatin silver photogram, 28 x 36 cmThe 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-NagySpace Modulator, 1939–45Oil and incised lines on Plexiglas, in original framePlexiglas: 63.2 × 66.7 cm; frame: 88.6 × 93 cmSolomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Founding Collection 47.1064 © 2016 Hattula Moholy-Nagy/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

László Moholy-Nagy (b. 1895, Borsód, Austria-Hungary; d. 1946, Chicago) believed in the potential of art as a vehicle for social transformation, working hand in hand with technology for the betterment of humanity. A restless innovator, Moholy-Nagy experimented with a wide variety of mediums, moving fluidly between the fine and applied arts in pursuit of his quest to illuminate the interrelatedness of life, art, and technology. An artist, educator, and writer who defied categorization, he expressed his theories in numerous influential writings that continue to inspire artists and designers today. Walter Gropius invited him to join the faculty at the Bauhaus school of art and design, where Moholy-Nagy taught in Weimar and Dessau in the 1920s. In 1937, he was appointed to head the New Bauhaus in Chicago; he later opened his own School of Design there (subsequently renamed the Institute of Design), which today is part of the Illinois Institute of Technology.

Among Moholy-Nagy’s radical innovations were his experiments with cameraless photographs (which he dubbed “photograms”); his unconventional use of industrial materials in painting and sculpture; experiments with light, transparency, space, and motion across mediums; and his work at the forefront of abstraction, as he strove to reshape the role of the artist in the modern world. Moholy-Nagy: Future Present features paintings, sculptures, collages, drawings, prints, films, photograms, photographs, photomontages, projections, documentation, and examples of graphic, advertising, and stage design drawn from public and private collections across Europe and the United States.

On display in the museum’s High Gallery is Room of the Present (Raum der Gegenwart), a contemporary fabrication of an exhibition space conceived of by Moholy-Nagy in 1930, but not realized in his lifetime. On view for the first time in the United States, the large-scale work contains photographic reproductions and design replicas as well as his kinetic Light Prop for an Electric Stage (Lichtrequisit einer elektrischen Buhne, 1930; recreated 2006). Room of the Present illustrates Moholy-Nagy’s belief in the power of images and the significance of the various means with which to view and disseminate them—a highly relevant paradigm in today’s constantly shifting and evolving technological world.

Moholy-Nagy is a central figure in the history of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. In 1929, Solomon R. Guggenheim and his advisor, German-born artist Hilla Rebay, began collecting his paintings, works on paper, and sculpture in depth for the Guggenheim’s growing collection of nonobjective art. His work held a special place at the Museum of Non-Objective Painting—the forerunner of the Guggenheim Museum—where a memorial exhibition was presented shortly after his untimely death in 1946.

Moholy-Nagy: Future Present is co-organized by Carol S. Eliel, Karole P. B. Vail, and Matthew S. Witkovsky. The Guggenheim presentation is organized by Karole P. B. Vail.

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Room of the Present (Raum der Gegenwart)

Based on the few existing plans, drawings, and related correspondence Moholy-Nagy left behind, Room of the Present—unrealized in the artist’s lifetime—was constructed in 2009 by designers Kai-Uwe Hemken and Jakob Gebert for presentation in several European museums.

Room of the Present exemplifies Moholy-Nagy’s desire to achieve the Gesamtwerk, or the total work, unifying art, technology, science, and film with life itself. Alexander Dorner, the ambitious young director of the Provincial Museum in Hannover, Germany, was inspired by Moholy-Nagy’s contribution to the annual salon of the Société des artistes décorateurs (Society of Decorative Artists) in Paris in 1930. For the German section of the salon, Moholy-Nagy designed Room 2 (Salle 2), which served as the model for Room of the Present, along with other exhibition designs. Dorner was keen on devising a new concept for the modern museum by rearranging art collections into “atmosphere rooms” in an effort to break from traditional installation practices and challenge the viewer with an appreciation for contemporary art. Intrigued by Moholy-Nagy’s use of photography, film, and light effects, Dorner invited him to design a comparable room for his museum.

Room of the Present would have included the most recent cultural developments in photography reproductions, films, slides, documents, and replicas of architecture, theater, and industrial design. Only one original object would have been included, Moholy-Nagy’s motor-driven light display apparatus Light Prop for an Electric Stage (Lichtrequisit einer elektrischen Buhne, 1930; recreated 2006), as the vehicle for the projection of fluctuating luminous effects. Also on view would have been films by Viking Eggeling, Sergei Eisenstein, and Dziga Vertov.

Though Room of the Present was never realized due to logistical and financial difficulties and the increasingly unstable political climate in Germany, it represented, in concept, Dorner and Moholy-Nagy’s thinking about the power of images and of the broad dissemination of knowledge and information. Intended as a hybrid between a museum gallery and a work of art, it would have served as what Moholy-Nagy described as an “arena of mass communication that would transform modern life.” Here, Room of the Present includes photographic panorama boards and loops, slide and film projection screens, movable panels with examples of typography, design objects, an educational text, and a replica of Light Prop for an Electric Stage placed inside a box in the center of the gallery, as originally envisaged by the artist.

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Installation views of Room 2 (Salle 2) of the German section of the annual salon of the Société des artistes décorateurs (Society of Decorative Artists), Paris, May 14–July 13, 1930. Courtesy Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin. Room 2 served as the model for Room of the Present.

Born into a Jewish family in rural Hungary, Moholy-Nagy began to publish poetry and short stories at a young age. In 1915, he left the University of Budapest, where he had enrolled as a law student, to serve as an artillery officer in the Austro-Hungarian army. While enlisted, he made numerous drawings and sketches. After convalescing from a hand wound he suffered on the Russian front, he continued to publish poems, stories, and reviews for the Hungarian literary journal Jelenkor (Present age). After his discharge from the army in 1918, he attended classes at a free art school in Budapest, where he studied the works of old masters, particularly Rembrandt, as well as those of Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh, and practitioners of Cubism and Futurism. He frequented the city’s lively café scene and came into close contact with Magyar Aktivizmus (Hungarian Activism), the influential avant-garde artistic and antimilitary movement headed by the artist and writer Lajos Kassák, who also founded the short-lived association MA (Today) and the eponymous magazine.

In autumn 1919, Moholy-Nagy moved to Vienna for a brief period before settling in Berlin in early spring 1920, where he became the correspondent for MA. There he met his future wife, Lucia Schulz, a socially and politically engaged photographer and editor. He also met Dada artists—whose works had already influenced his own—and encountered Constructivism, which had a formative impact on his developing style and aesthetics.

“For a new ordering of a new world the need arose again to take possession of the simplest elements of expression, color, form, matter, space.”

—László Moholy-Nagy, “On the Problem of New Content

and New Form” (1922)

Moholy-Nagy began to move away from representational imagery as he became influenced by the Constructivists, who believed art should reinforce social reform through simple, minimal forms in order to reflect the modern industrial world. He began to paint abstract geometric canvases in which diagonals, curves, circles, half-moons, and bands of color form architectural structures in space. The shapes seem to overlap, creating the illusion of a kind of glass architecture, a nod to the value of transparency and light proclaimed by German writers and modern architects in the early part of the twentieth century.

A prolific writer, Moholy-Nagy began to collaborate with others on texts and manifestos, including “Manifesto of Elemental Art” (1921), written with Hans Arp, Raoul Hausmann, and Iwan Puni. He participated in his first exhibition at the avant-garde gallery Der Sturm in Berlin in February 1922 with the Hungarian artist László Péri. The presentation, which included abstract paintings as well as assemblages and reliefs made of industrial materials, was successful, earning him subsequent exhibitions

and the publication of his woodcut designs in the gallery’s periodical. This recognition also spurred the publication of several important essays, including “Production-Reproduction” (1922), in which the artist formulated his theories for a new understanding of a person’s relationship to “creative activity” and documented novel recording methods with respect to the phonograph, photography, and film. In “Dynamic-Constructive Systems of Forces” (1922), coauthored with Hungarian Alfred Kemény, he advocated “to replace the static principle of classical art with the dynamic principle of universal life.”

Moholy-Nagy also began to experiment with photograms, cameraless photographs made by placing objects directly onto the surface of light-sensitive paper. Enthused by the creative and reproductive possibilities of the photographic medium, he would also go on to make photographs with a camera as well as photomontages, composite images intended to create new forms and meanings.

“New creative experiments are an enduring necessity.”

—László Moholy-Nagy, “Production-Reproduction” (1922)

In 1923, Walter Gropius, the founder of the Bauhaus school of art and design, invited Moholy-Nagy to join the faculty. Until 1928, Moholy-Nagy taught the school’s preliminary course, with Josef Albers, and directed the metal workshop. Joining the ranks of established artists Vasily Kandinsky and Paul Klee, Moholy-Nagy’s appointment emphasized a change in the school’s direction, as stipulated by Gropius, who advocated for the connection between art and technology. In 1924, Moholy-Nagy’s third exhibition at Der Sturm in Berlin included his industrially made enamel paintings, which caused a sensation among his contemporaries.

Moholy-Nagy published, along with Gropius, the Bauhaus Books series, a total of fourteen volumes that gave voice to leading artists of the day. He collaborated with designer Herbert Bayer—who promoted

a streamlined, “universal” alphabet—on eye-catching typography for Bauhaus stationery, programs, announcements, and various advertising materials, combining text and photography in an effort to convey a clear and direct message. He continued to paint variations on geometric and architectural compositions of intersecting planes and floating shapes and published lithographs, in which he sought a “genuine space system, a dictionary for space relationships.” He also made photomontages in a nod to the political and provocative imagery of Berlin Dada, collecting materials from magazines and newspapers and reassembling them in surprising combinations and narratives rich with humor, political satire, and often mysterious meanings.

“Not against technical progress, but with it.”

—László Moholy-Nagy, The New Vision: From Material

to Architecture (1930)

Moholy-Nagy believed his abstract paintings should not refer to anything in the real world, but he thought photography and film could include representational subject matter, and thus advocated for the necessity of working in various mediums. Throughout the 1920s, photography took on an increasingly important role for the artist as he embraced the idea of a “new vision,” a means of expressive power through photographs taken from unconventional perspectives and exaggerated viewpoints that could foster a new understanding of art in a fast-changing culture. Moholy-Nagy’s wide range of subject matter includes striking architectural viewpoints and arresting studies in texture, shadow, and light. These reveal formal compositional and organizational principles as the artist sought “new experiences of space” in his photographic work, just as he sought similar qualities in his paintings. In the latter, Moholy-Nagy experimented with various industrial materials, including the plastics Trolit and Galalith, but from around 1928, he did much less

painting for several years, temporarily considering the medium to be too restrictive, and instead focused on photography, design, and film.

In 1929–31, Moholy-Nagy participated in the exhibition Film und Foto (Fifo) as both a curator and exhibited photographer. This landmark presentation, which traveled across Europe and to Japan, emphasized the relationship of photography and film to society. Fifo was emblematic of Moholy-Nagy’s “new vision,” whereby unusual methods and techniques were hailed as the new means of creating art in an increasingly technological world. In 1930, he created his abstract film Light Play: Black-White-Gray (Ein Lichtspiel schwarz-weiß-grau), which showcased his Light Prop for an Electric Stage (Lichtrequisit einer elektrischen Buhne, 1930, recreated 2006) as its subject, illustrating his efforts to move from static painting to kinetic light displays in his desire to link different mediums.

“As in painting so in photography we have to learn to see, not the ‘picture,’ not the narrow rendering of nature, but an ideal instrument of visual expression.”

—László Moholy-Nagy, Vision in Motion (1947)

In Berlin, where he had resettled in 1928 after having left the Bauhaus, Moholy-Nagy turned to more commercial artistic pursuits, including advertising design and typography, exhibition design for housing developments, and stage design for the opera and theater, for which he created light projections. In winter 1931, he met writer Sibyl Pietzsch, who became his second wife and with whom he had two daughters. In 1934, because of the Nazis’ rise to power, Moholy-Nagy left Berlin and found exhibition and advertising work in Amsterdam. He collaborated there with De Stijl artists and architects, experimented with color photography, designed for the magazine International Textiles, had a solo exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum, and lectured frequently.

In spring 1935, Moholy-Nagy moved with his family to London, where he worked mainly as a graphic designer, creating posters for the London Underground and advertising materials for Imperial Airways and Isokon furniture. He continued to create short, documentary-like films, explore the possibilities of color photography, and experiment with industrial

materials, including aluminum and a range of plastics, as he pursued his research with light and transparency. In July 1937, he sailed to the United States at the invitation of the Association of Arts and Industries, which had been encouraged by former Bauhaus director Walter Gropius to recruit him as the director of the New Bauhaus in Chicago. The school was forced to close, for financial reasons, after only one year. In February 1939, with the monetary and moral support of Walter Paepcke, art collector and founder of the packaging company Container Corporation of America, Moholy-Nagy reopened the school as the School of Design (subsequently renamed the Institute of Design), which today is part of the Illinois Institute of Technology. Alongside his work as an administrator and fund-raiser, Moholy-Nagy continued to pursue his artistic practices, including photograms, color photography, and the exploration of new materials, such as Formica. Moholy-Nagy was especially intrigued by Plexiglas, whose unique transparent properties would occupy him until the end of his life.

“An education for personal growth.”

—László Moholy-Nagy,Vision in Motion (1947)

In his final years, Moholy-Nagy continued to create art in various mediums and to exhibit widely while he simultaneously pursued design work and shouldered the manifold duties demanded of him to run his design school, which he called a “laboratory for a new education.” He made some of his most original work during this time, remaining faithful to his longtime fascination with the mysteries of light, shadow, and transparency. He also explored the scientific advances of the day, experimenting with 35 mm Kodachrome color film—still in its infancy—and with plastics, as well as continuing his work with photograms.

He produced an array of explicitly autobiographical or narrative canvases—his Leuk and Nuclear paintings—that allude to the cancer that would eventually take his life in 1946 and to the horrors of the atomic bombings in Japan in 1945. Especially prominent in his late work are Plexiglas hybrids of painting and sculpture, which he titled Space

Modulators, objects to be perceived as “vehicles for choreographed luminosity” that cast special shadow effects.

Moholy-Nagy was always in pursuit of the “whole man,” seeking out new materials and methods in the steadfast belief that what mattered most were intellectual awareness and the necessity for the assimilation of art, technology, and education. From Europe, he brought his reputation and intellectual authority as well as his faith in humanity. Having arrived in America at a critical time between two world wars and on the cusp of significant artistic developments, he remained true to his vision as he paved the way for an increasingly interdisciplinary and multimedia age. The body of work on view in this exhibition exemplifies Moholy-Nagy’s commitment to the Gesamtwerk, or the total work, which he sought throughout his life, advocating for “the specific need of our time for a vision in motion.” These last three words became the title of his influential culminating text, which was published posthumously in 1947.

“If the unity of art can be established with all the subject matters taught and exercised, then a real reconstruction of this world could be hoped for—more balanced and less dangerous.”

—László Moholy-Nagy, “The Contribution of the Arts to

Social Reconstruction” (1943)

Lavazza Premium Coffees Corp. 120 Wall Street, New York, NY 10005 Tel. 212.725.8800 • Fax 212.725.9475 • 1-800-GOOD-CUP • www.lavazza.com

Lavazza Supports the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation as Sponsor of László Moholy-Nagy Retrospective Lavazza is honored to support Moholy-Nagy: Future Present, the first comprehensive retrospective dedicated to László Moholy-Nagy in the United States in nearly fifty years. The exhibition offers a unique opportunity to assess the multifaceted and influential career of this visionary artist, who was also a prominent Bauhaus educator, a prolific writer, and the founder of Chicago’s Institute of Design. Lavazza applauds the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum for presenting this compelling and inspiring exhibition that illuminates the work of one of the most versatile members of the twentieth-century avant-garde. The sponsorship of Moholy-Nagy: Future Present builds on Lavazza’s longtime commitment to the arts, including support of two recent exhibitions at the Guggenheim Museum: Italian Futurism, 1909–1944: Reconstructing the Universe (2014) and Alberto Burri: The Trauma of Painting (2015). Lavazza was established as a family-owned coffee company in 1895, the year of Moholy-Nagy’s birth, and the organization has since encouraged innovation and creativity in all forms. Lavazza is rooted in experimentation—our founder, Luigi Lavazza, pioneered the art of blending coffee from around the world to meet the diverse tastes of our customers, a process still used today. Moholy-Nagy had the same pioneering spirit, as evinced by his work’s incorporation of modern technology and scientific principles and by his unconventional approach to kinetics, light, photography, and support materials. In collaborating with the Guggenheim Museum to present this exhibition, we take pride in exploring Moholy-Nagy’s dynamic journey, viewing it through the lens of a broader cultural history, and seeing how the values of the artist and our company converge. As Lavazza continues to establish itself in the United States, we remain committed to supporting creative expression. Moholy-Nagy’s genius has made a significant and admirable impact on communities across the globe and expanded our thinking about art and life. We are grateful to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation for deepening our understanding of the artist and for introducing his work to new audiences. For further information: Liz Santillanes [email protected] 617-549-6022 Bridget O’Hara Hale [email protected] 347-575-5152

Lavazza Premium Coffees Corp. 120 Wall Street, New York, NY 10005 Tel. 212.725.8800 • Fax 212.725.9475 • 1-800-GOOD-CUP • www.lavazza.com

LAVAZZA & MOHOLY-NAGY: FUTURE PRESENT “Lavazza is thrilled to have made possible the New York presentation of the Moholy-Nagy: Future Present retrospective at the Guggenheim. As a new member of the Guggenheim Board of Trustees, I am particularly enthusiastic about the third year of Lavazza’s partnership with the leading cultural institution. In collaborating with the Guggenheim Museum to present this exhibition, we take pride in exploring Moholy-Nagy’s dynamic journey, viewing it through the lens of a broader cultural history, and seeing how the values of the artist and our company converge, particularly within the themes of innovation, technology and an underscoring pioneering spirit.”

- Francesca Lavazza Member of the Board, Lavazza Group / Trustee, Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation LAVAZZA’S COMMITMENT TO THE ARTS & CULTURE “As one of the leading global brands, Lavazza has the opportunity to share its passion for the arts and culture worldwide. Particularly, our involvement with the contemporary art world dates back more than 20 years, working with some of the most renowned photographers in the world for the annual Lavazza Calendar and other projects (including Steve McCurry, Annie Leibovitz, and David Lachapelle). In recent years, our passion has expanded to partner with select leading organizations such as the Guggenheim Museum in New York, Civic Museums of Venice, MUDEC Milan, and the Photographer’s Gallery in London. We look forward to continue to help drive the cultural conversation with our existing and new partnerships in the near future.”

- Francesca Lavazza Member of the Board, Lavazza Group / Trustee, Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation

Documents

Major Retrospective of László Moholy-Nagy Opens at the ... · Major Retrospective of László Moholy-Nagy Opens at the Guggenheim Museum in New York on May 27, 2016 ... scale work