László Moholy-Nagy: photogram untitled (1943)
László Moholy-Nagy started working on photograms in the 1920s. In his book vision in motion (1946) the artist describes the technique.
Lucia Moholy: Sir Ernest Barker (circa 1936)
The portrait of political scientistErnest Barker is rendered in narrow vertical format. In the lower left third of the picture the profile is cut off. The rest of the picture is filled out by shadow. The photographer Lucia Moholy, who had emigrated from Germany, used the visual means of the twenties in this portrait.
Lucia Moholy: The countess of Oxford and Asquith (1935)
The eighty-one-year-old Lady Oxford appears in profile in this photograph. Her face is cast in shadow and appears somewhat like a silhouette. Her eye, the base of her nose and her mouth folds are not visible. The volume of her head is emphasized by a light shining from the side of the picture onto the back of her hair and her left cheek.
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe: circular letter to the students of the Bauhaus in Dessau (1932)
After Hannes Meyer was given notice as Bauhaus Director because he did not suppress the political activities of the students, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe took over the directorship of the school. On taking office, the architect, who was regarded as an apolitical figure, issued a new college constitution that forbade student political activities.
Lyonel Feininger: New York Studio, Photographs (1939)
In 1938, Lyonel Feininger moved, together with his wife, into an apartment at 235 East 22nd street, New York. In comparison to their residence in one of the Dessau “Masters’ Houses”, the New York abode was small.
Lyonel Feininger: The Jagged Reef (1939)
Only a small number of drawings and watercolours were produced during Lyonel Feininger’s initial, post-German phase in the USA. It would be two years before his first American oil paintings appeared.
Lyonel Feininger: View from the window of his New Yorker Studio (1939)
After Lyonel Feininger had finished teaching a summer course at Mills College, California, the Feiningers moved to New York – the centre of American cultural life. They spent their first months on the US east coast staying the Hotel Earle on Washington Square until they found a suitable apartment.
New Year’s card by László Moholy-Nagy (1936/1937)
The painter and photographer László Moholy-Nagy designed the last New Year’s card from England with a photogram from his Dessau period – a self-portrait. It was usual among artists, friends and collectors the send each other self-designed cards at the end of the year.
Photograph of Heinz and Ricarda Schwerin (1935)
With Friends in HungaryAfter fleeing Germany, the photographer Ricarda Meltzer and the interior designer Heinz Schwerin lived in Prague. From there they moved on further to Hungary, where they stayed for some time with friends in Pécs who they knew from their time studying at the Bauhaus.
Récépissé: travel document belonging to Lucia Moholy (1934)
Im August 1933 wurde Lucia Moholys Lebensgefährte, der KPD-Politiker Theodor Neubauer in ihrer Wohnung verhaftet. Ohne Gepäck verließ die Fotografin daraufhin ihre Wohnung in Berlin. Einige Freunde halfen ihr, das Land zu verlassen.
