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Construction

1923

László Moholy-Nagy

(American, 1895–1946)
Culture
America
Medium
lithograph
Measurements
Sheet: 59.4 x 43.8 cm (23 3/8 x 17 1/4 in.); Image: 59.4 x 27.7 cm (23 3/8 x 10 7/8 in.)
Credit Line
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1989.16
Catalogue raisonné
Passuth 124
Copyright
© Estate of László Moholy-Nagy / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
This artwork is known to be under copyright.
Location
Not on view
Print

Description

In 1920 the Hungarian artist László Moholy-Nagy moved to Berlin where he met members of the Russian and German avant-garde who had given up the traditional sculptural techniques of modeling, carving, and bronze casting to experiment with three-dimensional abstract constructions. Moholy-Nagy reduced the components of his compositions to essential geometric shapes and also used transparent elements. Moholy-Nagy's "glass architecture," with its strict order of intersecting elements and purity of forms, achieves harmony and equilibrium. Exploiting the rich blacks and fine gradations of tone possible with lithography, he produced the same effect in two-dimensions.
A vertically oriented print with a sparse composition of five clustered black and grey geometric shapes. A black diagonal line bisects the cream paper and is bisected horizontally by a black semi-circle and, below, a grey line. A parallel grey line runs atop this, stopping before the black line. Adjacent to the black line is a large white semicircle, overlapping the black semicircle and grey lines. The shapes are slightly skewed in relation to each other.

Construction

1923

László Moholy-Nagy

(American, 1895–1946)
America

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