The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 18, 2025

An abstract, black-and-white photogram depicting a collection of white grid-like patterns of shapes layered over each other on a black background. The photogram, made by placing objects onto a light-sensitive material and exposing it to light, creates a x-ray-like quality. Laid diagonally from the lower left to upper right corner are overlaid sheets with rows of square and circle cut-outs and mesh. A swirl of string winds behind the sheets, glowing white against the background.

Untitled

1939

László Moholy-Nagy

(American, 1895–1946)
America
gelatin silver print, photogram
Image: 50.6 x 40.3 cm (19 15/16 x 15 7/8 in.); Matted: 66 x 55.9 cm (26 x 22 in.)
Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund 1992.10
© Estate of László Moholy-Nagy / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Location: Not on view

Description

Sometimes the most literal photographs can be the most abstract. The influential painter, designer, photographer, filmmaker, theorist, and teacher László Moholy-Nagy was one of numerous émigré artists who arrived in the United States in the 1930s. In 1922 he began producing photograms, a process in which objects are placed directly onto light-sensitive paper and exposed to light. Here he has intuitively arranged wire, mesh, string, and thin plastic templates with geometric cut-outs to form an abstract, diagonal composition. Is it an inventory of works found in an artist’s studio or a mysterious dreamscape suggesting a world beyond time and place?
  • Toby Miller, New York
  • Haskell, Barbara. The American Century: Art & Culture, 1900-1950. New York: Whitney Museum of American Art in association with W.W. Norton, 1999. p. 298, fig. 576
    Turner, Evan H. "The Year in Review for 1992." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 80, no. 2 (1993): 38-79. Mentioned: p. 69, no. 112 25161388
    Cleveland Museum of Art, Tom E Hinson. Catalogue of Photography. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1996. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 46-47, 247
    Nyerges, Alexander Lee, Robert Gurbo, Károly Kincses, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Szépművészeti Múzeum (Hungary), and George Eastman Museum. American, Born Hungary : KertéSz, Capa, and the Hungarian American Photographic Legacy. Richmond, Virginia: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 2024. Reproduced: p. 253, no. 144
  • American, born Hungary: Kertész, Capa, and the Hungarian American Photographic Legacy. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA (organizer) (October 5, 2024-January 26, 2025) https://vmfa.museum/exhibitions/exhibitions/american-born-hungary-hungarian-american-photographic-legacy/.
    From Riches to Rags: American Photography in the Depression. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 13-December 31, 2017).
    Icons of American Photography: A Century of Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 24-September 16, 2007); Frick Art and Historical Center, Pittsburgh, PA (October 3, 2009-January 3, 2010).
    The American Century: Art and Culture 1900-2000 (Part 1: 1900-1950). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY (organizer) (April 22-September 5, 1999).
    Legacy of Light: Master Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 24, 1996-February 2, 1997).
    Selected Acquisitions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 9-April 11, 1993).
  • {{cite web|title=Untitled|url=false|author=László Moholy-Nagy|year=1939|access-date=18 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1992.10