A 19

The Art Institute of Chicago.

Oil and graphite on canvas.

While the first abstract paintings by Moholy-Nagy had opaque geometric shapes and resembled works of El Lissitzky, this one shows that the author developed a unique idiom. He emphasized transparency over hardness because he preferred to paint “not with colours but with light”. The cross motive – a definite hint of Malevich’s Suprematism – is doubled here, and the red and black overlapping crossbars have different transparency and create a sense of dynamic movement. At the same time, the white circle, revealing the colours of the crossbars under it, causes a kind of photogram effect – it intersects asymmetrically with the figures behind it. The combination of letters and numbers in the title reflects the artist’s belief that the names should offer an objective order similar to a scientific formula. As Laszlo later wrote, he was interested in “the primordial, basic elements of art, the ABC of self-expression”.