Moholy-Nagy László

A Hungarian artist and graphic illustrator, sculptor and master of art photography, film theorist and journalist. Born Laszlo Weisz. He was one of the largest figures of the world avant-garde in the first half of the 20th century, as well as the most important representative of the New Vision photo.

Laszlo Moholy-Nagy was a member of the Dadaists, experienced the influence of Constructivism and developed its principles, and was also a co-author of theoretical works. The ideas of the Hungarian master played a significant role in the development of a digital design. They had an impact on modern software developers such as Ben Fry, Casey Reas and John Maeda.

The artist delved into various fields of creativity – from commercial design to theatrical scenery, and also worked as an art director of a magazine, made films. But his greatest contribution to the development of world art was the Bauhaus version he organized in the United States of America – Laszlo Moholy-Nagy founded the highly influential Design Institute in Chicago.

The Bauhaus style was largely a product of the turbulent history of the first half of the 20th century – a period that continues to be a subject of deep interest today. For example, 2009 was celebrated in Europe and the United States as the year of the Bauhaus.

The enormous geographical (from Hungary to the USA), cultural and professional distance that Laszlo Moholy-Nagy overcame in his relatively short life is amazing. His personality captivates you with energy, and his creative talent impresses viewers with an incredible variety of activities and optimistic idealism.

Key ideas:

– Laszlo Moholy-Nagy discovered his passion for drawing when he fought as an artillery officer during the First World War. His figurative paintings and drawings tended to Expressionism – the horrors of war remained his emotion for life.

– Laszlo Moholy-Nagy was passionate about the activities of the Bauhaus, which was the most significant outpost of Constructivism in Europe. He also considered and applied the ideas of Minimalism and Suprematism of K. Malevich; this was reflected in his abstract geometric compositions. Subsequently, Moholy-Nagy emphasized the unity of art and the latest technology.

– He became interested in photography thanks to his friend Erzsébet Landau, who had a photo studio in Budapest. Moholy-Nagy was absorbed in the vital and formative effects of light throughout his career, but nowhere else were these addictions more clear than in his photographs. In them, according to the artist, the light was a “means of plastic expression” and visual composition.

– Laszlo used the technique developed by Henry Talbot – photographs taken without a camera, and also found immediate precedents in the radiographs of his contemporaries, Dadaists Christian Schad and Man Ray. Objects were placed above the “canvas” and left white spots, as they blocked the rays of light directed onto photosensitive paper. However, works of Moholy-Nagy is a deliberate use of the medium, supported not by a Dadaist desire to destroy the boundaries of the environment but by faith in the life-possibilities of photography.

– In collages and ordinary photographs, the artist suggested, “you can use radical and unexpected angles to stimulate a new perception of the world”.

– Having moved to the United States, the artist founded the Design Institute in Chicago, originally known as the “New Bauhaus”, an institution that had a significant influence on the spread of European constructivism principles in the world.

– He continued to work on his Space Modulators and began using plexiglass. These creations blurred the boundaries between painting and sculpture: a sheet of plexiglass with a printed pattern was placed at a distance from the wall or stood on a stand, which made it possible to obtain a complex interaction of light and shadow.