Page 39 - Studio International - July August 1975

individual to the political arena of the group; and even the Expressionist groups and with a sure instinct for exploiting
masses. from which the original Bauhaus staff given resources to the utmost. But
By 1922 Moholy-Nagy was involved were recruited shared the general urge Moholy's model was fundamentally an
with related problems. His first attempt to make art a viable instrument of social organic one : unlike van Doesburg and
to construct a theoretical framework for renewal6. This open, expectant the de Stijl group, he did not recognize
his preoccupations was a statement of the situation was not one in which free any dichotomy between nature and
antithesis between 'production' and experiment was necessarily regarded as a technology9. Technology was an
`reproduction' (translated here as a romantic indulgence, as it increasingly infinitely promising extension of nature,
preface to this article), which will be was in Russia by 1922. And the not an attempt to overcome it. The
discussed in more detail further on. But challenge presented to Moholy would engineer-artist was not there to impose an
Moholy had arrived at his conclusions have been to formulate an approach which artificial utopian environment on his
by a very different route, and the would not only justify free experimental fellow human-beings; he was there
change that he gauges in the function of activity on a par with design for to sharpen their senses, stimulate their
art finds a less analytic and more production, but locate such activity as a awareness, foster their natural potential
programmatic expression than in vital factor in social reconstruction. for creativity. Moholy thought this
Benjamin's writings. Moholy did not The common denominator of potential was being increasingly eroded
share Benjamin's historical sense and his constructivist tendencies, whether for or by the way in which technology was
gift for exquisitely differentiated against free experiment, was implicit in being applied in practice — but not by
argument; his strength lay in the the movement's new label : technology as such. He took a
forcefulness of his formulations and the Constructivism meant the espousal of technologically suggestive metaphor
consistency with which he acted out his the modern engineer as a prototype of of Russian origin, 'production', and
insights. His attitudes to the the artist. Where Constructivists located its essential meaning in the
implications of mechanical reproductive differed was in their conception of what quality of inventiveness, in creativity : the
media rested, in the first instance, on it meant to draw parallels between art metaphor could be turned against
modes of thinking introduced into and technology. The Russians who came technology wherever technology was
Berlin circles by itinerant Russian to Berlin were by and large not those who being used in ways that inhibited
constructivists in the early twenties, and came to accept the analogy between the creativity instead of liberating it.
the 'Production-Reproduction' essay artist and the engineer as a call to a Moholy's rather bald 1922 statement
reflects his awareness of the debate about utilitarian aesthetic. Gabo, whom 'Production-Reproduction' (see p.17 )
`Production Art' which had come to a Moholy greatly respected, was an provides a useful starting-point for
head in Moscow a year earlier, before the idealist more concerned with the demonstrating where he anticipates
label 'Constructivism' became generally precision of the artistic process than with Benjamin's analysis and where he
adopted in place of 'Productivism". But its applications : the artist was to diverges from it, here and in later
his approach is conditioned by his construct his work 'as the universe writings. On one level, Moholy
response to the situation prevailing in constructs its own, as the engineer means by 'reproduction' what Benjamin
Berlin in the early years of the Weimar constructs his bridges, as the means by it : he observes for example
Republic, where artists were free from mathematician his formula of the that the gramophone had been used
the specific kind of political pressure orbits'.' Van Doesburg, a great exclusively to reproduce sounds
which determined the shift from pontificator who took up the cause of originally produced in a different
Productivism to Constructivism in international Constructivism, claimed context, to provide a mechanical
Russia. By this time Stepanova, the the catchword 'machine aesthetic' as his reproduction of a live performance. For
Stenberg brothers and other Russian own,8 but his arguments were formulated Benjamin, the corollary of this kind of
artists were throwing their weight behind within such a rigid rationalist framework reproductive process was that through
the programme for industrialization by that his doctrine of the machine as a `meeting the beholder or listener in his
channelling their energies into applied means to social liberation remains a own situation'10, it shatters the
design or education; meanwhile, those dead letter. Lissitzky, who was equally tradition in which the art form had been
committed to the premises of avant- at home in Russia and Germany, embedded; for such a tradition is
garde experimental activity were embodied some of the contradictions transmitted through the quality of the
increasingly finding their work regarded inherent in the artist-engineer analogy : `aura' or presence of an original art work
as peripheral. It was natural that artists he claimed that his Prouns were not or interpretative performance. Moholy,
in this latter category should tend to seek simply 'painting', but he couldn't quite following the futurist-constructivist
an outlet in the West once the blockade sustain their status as architecture. They precedent, took the shattering of
was lifted, and Puni, Gabo, Altman, were utopian blueprints for the new traditions for granted. The corollary
Lissitzky, Ehrenburg, Mayakovsky and society, painted equivalents of the verbal for him was in the nature of a challenge :
Roman Jakobson were among the many `construction' metaphor which was so to find a 'productive' use for the same
Russians active in Berlin in the years pregnant at the time (and which crops piece of ostensibly reproductive
immediately following Moholy's arrival up again in the name of the Bauhaus). equipment. And he proposes a use of the
there from Hungary early in 192o. It is Social reconstruction could be gramophone which would allow a
from the exchange of ideas opened up by symbolized by the processes of building composer to reach his public direct,
the presence of such people that Moholy or engineering construction; and painting, bypassing the performer-interpreter
(despite language difficulties) would in turn, could be made to stand proxy and therefore the necessity for second-
have taken over any concepts he felt able for both of these at once. hand experience of the recorded
to use. Moholy's justification for painting and interpretation 11. (There is a parallel in
During the brief years of 'Russian other forms of free experiment worked the way the language of video is now
Berlin', the artistic, intellectual (and on a different level, largely independent of being explored as distinct and separable
initially the political) climate was such this kind of analogizing. His painting in from the broadcasting content of
that the way still seemed open for radical fact owes much to Lissitzky's ; but any television.)
social reconstruction on the Russian symbolism in it is largely unconscious. This preoccupation with the
model, the creation of new institutional He took what he wanted from the `productive' potential of communications
forms on premises fundamentally artist-engineer analogy, but didn't allow media might seem to be borne out in the
different from those that had embodied it to constrict his framework for a popular image of Moholy as the man who
the hierarchical society of the pre-war constructivist aesthetic. Unlike Gabo or — soon after publishing this essay —
years. There was a general feeling among Lissitzky, he had had no technical ordered his own paintings over the
artists that anything might happen; and training; as a drop-out law student telephone. Although Moholy himself is
that they themselves had an essential brought up in rural Hungary, his responsible for propagating the
role to play in making things happen. enthusiasm for the new technology was telephone legend in an autobiographical
This sense of expectation temporarily basically naive. His own prototype sketch", he never claimed that it was the
overrode the ideological and aesthetic engineer-artist was more like a unexplored potential of the telephone
differences between the Russians, the resourceful do-it-yourself enthusiast, that had sparked him off on this occasion.
Berlin Dadas and the migrant De Stijl master of the most economical solution, In fact, it was a problem that had
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