LIS (Moholy-Nagy)
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| LIS |
|---|
| László Moholy-Nagy , 1922 |
| Oil and graphite on canvas |
| 131 × 100 cm |
| Kunsthaus Zürich , (inventory number 1981.6) |
LIS is the title of a painting by László Moholy-Nagy from 1922, which was created shortly before his appointment as a teacher at the Weimar Bauhaus . It can be assigned to constructivism and one of its most important paintings. It has been part of the collection at the Kunsthaus Zürich since 1981 .
Background and description
In this and other pictures from the early 1920s, Moholy-Nagy also processed influences from Russian constructivism and the theories of the Dutch artist group De Stijl . But, unlike some of his contemporary contemporary artists, he was of the opinion that painting would not become superfluous. He wrote:
"As long as people, in possession of their senses, demand optical results, the creation of colored harmonies - one could say: for reasons of preservation of life - cannot be switched off."
After his exhibition together with László Péri in February 1923 in the gallery Der Sturm in Berlin, Walter Gropius appointed him to the Weimar Bauhaus. Moholy-Nagy also wrote in 1927, and not only with regard to photography, it was due to the human peculiarity that the functional apparatuses urged further new impressions after each new picture. He doesn't just mean the camera, but also the human senses that should be mobilized.
According to a picture of the art historian Joachim Heusinger von Waldegg , the title of the picture LIS is purely a fantasy name. According to Moholy-Nagy's view that painting is built architecture, he could just as easily describe an industrially manufactured mass product. The composition of the picture shows an exact right-angled arrangement in its technical-factual arrangement of geometric shapes. Striking areas in a uniform, muted bluish-gray, cool color scheme are delimited by pure-colored stripes in red and yellow and in the brightness levels black and white. According to Heusinger von Waldegg, they “revive” the areas. The "relationship game" of the colors is therefore guaranteed solely by the geometric shapes. Compared to earlier works by Moholy-Nagy, the forms in this picture are set more densely. This compression is concentrated on the right below the center of the picture under the gray, transparent circular disk that lies on the basic structure of the picture. Through its overlapping, it creates a weakening of the color of the underlying structure and thus creates a spatial impression. This disc could be perceived as disturbing, but also, at least under the circular shape, as invigorating and moving (according to Heusinger von Waldegg). László Moholy-Nagy advocated the thesis that color should become light in modern painting. Matthew S. Witkovsky, the former curator of the Art Institute of Chicago , on the other hand, describes the translucent pane of the picture as a "beautiful translucent filtering of color." Like Malevich and especially Piet Mondrian , Moholy-Nagy used precise pencil strokes to sketch the geometric shapes and shadows from LIS , which he partially erased before applying paint. But he also left some of them standing so that these lines take on a life of their own in the picture. This can be recognized, for example, by the contour drawn in pencil in the upper left area of the translucent circular disk.
Exhibition and provenance
The picture came to the art historian and dealer Hans-Hellmut Klihm (1917–1980) and was part of his art collection. In 1981 his widow Erika sold it to the Kunsthaus Zürich. Since then it has had the inventory number there 1981.6.
- June 1 to July 6, 1962: L. Moholy-Nagy 1895 - 1946 , Kunst Kabinett Klihm, Munich
- October 8, 2009 to February 7, 2010: László Moholy-Nagy retrospective at the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt .
- May 27 to September 7, 2016: Moholy-Nagy: Future Present at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum , New York
- October 2, 2016 to January 3, 2017: Moholy-Nagy: Future Present at the Art Institute of Chicago .
literature
- Edit Tóth: Design and Visual Culture from the Bauhaus to Contemporary Art: Optical Deconstructions . Routledge, Taylor and Francis, London 2018, ISBN 978-1-351-06244-2 , Chapter 2. Orienting the New Woman , Figure 2.2 László Moholy-Nagy LIS, 1922 (English, books.google.de ).
Web links
- Joachim Heusinger von Waldegg: Visit to the Kunsthaus Zürich with a description of the picture from the WDR series 1000 masterpieces
- Marc Vitali: Art Institute Takes Fresh Look at Pioneering Artist, Teacher. wttw.com (about the Chicago exhibition)
Individual evidence
- ^ László Moholy-Nagy: Painting Photography Film. In: Bauhaus books. 8. Albert Langen Verlag, Munich 1927, pp. 9 ff. And 14 ( bibliothequekandinsky.centrepompidou.fr PDF).
- ↑ Joachim Heusinger von Waldegg: 1000 masterpieces from the great museums of the world: LIS 1922. youtube.com.
- ↑ Ulrike Gärtner: Instead of Color: Light - Instead of Statics: Kinetics Insights into László Moholy-Nagy's Bauhaus books . In: Schirn-Kunsthalle Frankfurt (ed.): László Moholy-Nagy, retrospective: on the occasion of the exhibition László Moholy-Nagy. October 8, 2009 - February 7, 2010 . Prestel, Munich / Berlin / London / New York, NY 2009, ISBN 978-3-7913-6263-2 , pp. 86–95 , here p. 87 .
- ^ Matthew S. Witkovsky in the catalog of the exhibition Moholy-Nagy: Future Present. Elemental Marks. Yale University Press, New Haven / London 2016, ISBN 978-0-300-21479-6 , pp. 29 and 31.
- ↑ Schirn-Kunsthalle Frankfurt (ed.): László Moholy-Nagy, retrospective . Prestel, Munich / Berlin / London / New York, NY 2009, ISBN 978-3-7913-6263-2 (exhibition catalog).
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^ Moholy-Nagy: Future Present. Art Institute of Chicago - Artsy, accessed February 17, 2019 . Susan Snodgrass: Moholy-Nagy: Future Present. In: ARTMargins. Retrieved February 17, 2019 .