László Moholy-Nagy (artist) American, born Hungary, 1895 - 1946 Untitled (Positive), c. 1922-1924 gelatin silver print from photogram negative overall: 23.7 x 17.8 cm (9 5/16 x 7 in.) Gift of The Circle of the National Gallery of Art 1999.23.2 |
Object 11 of 15
In the 1920s and 1930s numerous painters and sculptors began to explore photography, using it as just another tool in the artist's repertoire of equipment. With their modernist sensibilities intent on analyzing the fundamental properties of the medium, they often made highly experimental photographs and considered photography as something that could be fabricated. Beginning in the early 1920s, Moholy-Nagy often made prints (called photograms because they were made without using a camera) by placing objects on pieces of light-sensitive paper, which he then exposed to light and developed. Occasionally, as in this work, he placed the resulting "negative" print in contact with another sheet of light-sensitive paper, and exposed and developed it to achieve a "positive" print.
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