László Moholy-Nagy (Hungarian, 1895-1946) Überschneidung [Intersection/Overlap]

Description:

László Moholy-Nagy (Hungarian, 1895-1946)

Überschneidung [Intersection/Overlap], 1921
Signed "Moholy=Nagy" in pencil l.r., inscribed "1921/CAT #...71" in felt-tip pen and
identified on a label from the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Illinois, on the paper backing.
Collage on paper, 12 1/2 x 7 1/2 in. (31.8 x 19.1 cm),framed.
Condition: Not examined out of frame.

Provenance: From the artist by descent to his wife, Sibyl Moholy-Nagy; acquired by sculptor and former student of the artist Roy Gussow (American, 1918-2011),Long Island City, New York, c. 1970s; by family descent.

Literature: Museum of Contemporary Art and Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, László Moholy-Nagy (Chicago: Museum of Contemporary Art, 1969),p. 60, no. 71 (misprinted as 72. Überschneidung).

Exhibitions: László Moholy-Nagy; An Exhibition Organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum...in cooperation with the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, the University Art Museum at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Seattle Art Museum, May 1969 to April 1970, no. 71.

N.B. The present work exemplifies Moholy-Nagy's first phase of artistic development, which manifested itself primarily through collage. The medium of collage (as inherent flat planes) allowed Moholy-Nagy to treat color as autonomous forms. Primary colors were used to provide contrast between space and line, toward organizing "space segments" rather than for illusionistic purposes which serviced line. As Moholy-Nagy explains, "Color... was transformed into a force loaded with potential space articulation". (1)

(1) Museum of Contemporary Art, 14.

Estimate $8,000-12,000

Minor toning, not examined out of frame due to the delicate nature of the labels affixed to the reverse. The window opening of the white mat measures 11 x 6 15/16 in. The opening in the gray paper measures 6 15/16 x 4 3/16 in.


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