Page 46 - Studio International - July August 1975

from a sculpture of mass to kinetic 12 'Abstract of an Artist' in The New Vision original is in the Busch-Reisiger Museum,
construction of 'virtual volume' in space, and Abstract of an Artist, New York 1947, Harvard; there are working replicas in the
is clearly more derivative from his own p.79. Bauhaus Archive, Berlin, and the
personal preoccupations — an attempt to " Lucia Moholy, Marginalien zu Moholy- Stedelijk van Abbe Museum, Eindhoven.
justify them and project them forward Nagy, Marginal Notes, p.74ff, Krefeld 1972. 34 The concept is discussed in The New
Vision, op. cit., p.27ff.
into the future — than vice versa. Moholy The series comprised three identical works in 35 The New Vision, op. cit., p.39.
baked enamel: 87 x 6o cm, 47.7 x 3o cm and
is sometimes represented as erudite and 24 x 17 cm. 36 'Problems of the Modern Film' (1932),
systematic in the theoretical area, and in 14 Lucia Moholy, p.79. in Kostelanetz, op. cit., p.131ff.
the practical area as a calculating 15 Benjamin, p.236, and Moholy-Nagy, " In Kostelanetz, p.118ff. A `Typophoto'
technician bent on lending art the Painting Photography Film (English edn. of version appears as an appendix to Painting
precision finish of engineering 1927 Bauhaus book), London 1969, p.7; p.28. Photography Film. (This is an attempt to
procedures. He was obviously neither. " Benjamin, p.237. See also Moholy-Nagy, demonstrate the possibility of a non-linear
For one thing, his own German usage `A New Instrument of Vision' (1932), in (synoptic) organization of verbal and visual
material.)
was highly unorthodox, and he had little R. Kostelanetz, Moholy-Nagy, New York " Painting Photography Film, op. cit., p.28.
1970, p.50ff.
interest in ploughing through academic 17 Benjamin, 'Kleine Geschichte der 330 'A New Instrument of Vision', in
literature in German: he relied heavily Photographic' (1931), in Angelus Novus, Kostelanetz, p.74.
on others not only to supply him with Frankfurt 1966. See the final paragraph. 40 Benjamin, 'The Work of Art in the Age of
references and back-up material, but also 18 Benjamin, 'The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction', op. cit., p.236.
to help in formulating his ideas". Mechanical Reproduction', op. cit., p.238. 41 Von Material zu Architektur, facsimile
Where, on the practical level, he " Painting Photography Film, op. cit., p.26. edition, Mainz and Berlin 1968, p.4 I.
advocates systematic investigation of the Lissitzky's admonition to the 'readers' of Volker Kahmen borrows the same
potential inherent in any material and his Of Two Squares, published in Berlin, juxtaposition in Photography as Art,
any medium, old or new, what he 1922, is also relevant: 'Don't read the story, London 1974 — a book which surely owes as
much to Moholy in the organization of
conceives of as systematic appears as take paper, sticks, your building bricks and photographic material as it does to
almost random by comparison with more put it together, paint it, build it.' Benjamin in the introductory text.
Moholy's famous slogan 'EVERYONE IS
recent neo-constructivist and systems- TALENTED', a paragraph heading in 42 See the Catalogue Constructivism in
based work. He laid great store by chance The New Vision, derives from the ideas of Poland 1923-1936, Museum Folkwang,
discoveries, and would generally set Heinrich Jacoby, a German educationist, who Essen/Rijksmuseum Kröller-Müller, Otterlo,
about working in an unfocused 'what used to give lecture-demonstrations designed 1973. Moholy's painting had also displayed
would happen if . . . ?' frame of mind. to prove to the man-in-the-street that he was an interest in textural 'facture' — but only as
The extraordinary range of his own work `musical' after all. Jacoby, like Moholy, one of many ways of defining forms in space,
and ideas is a function of what he operated with an antithesis between not as an exclusive preoccupation in its own
right.
conceived to be the role of an artist in a `productive' and 'reproductive' activity 43 Von Material zu Architektur, op. cit., p.72.
society increasingly dominated by the (Jenseits von `musikalisch' und 'unmusikalisch', " Beaumont Newhall, review of Moholy's
Stuttgart 1927).
mass media and gross overspecialization 22 See The New Vision, op. cit., pp. 14-18. achievement (1948) in Kostelanetz, p.70.
of individual skills : by an irony, his (This book is an English edition of Moholy's " Though the mannikin-fetishism of the
commitment to working across this 1929 Bauhaus book Von Material zu Paris-based Surrealists had scarcely made an
whole range was his most consistently Architektur.) appearance by this date (1926), except (by
systematic characteristic. He never — in 23 In Kostelanetz, p.187. The same implication) in Max Ernst's work.
considering painting, photography, assumption also underlies Benjamin's 46 In Kostelanetz, p.124ff.
film or any other medium — commits discussion of reproduction techniques: see 47 See Lucia Moholy, p.69ff.
himself irrevocably to the merits of a `The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical 48 In Franz Roh, Moholy-Nagy: 6o Fotos,
Berlin 192o.
single exclusive approach. For any Reproduction', op. cit., p.219. McLuhan's " See Lucia Moholy, p.74ff.
doctrinaire narrowing of potentials runs championship of non-linear forms of
counter to the concept of 'production' communication develops a thesis central to
which, in one form or another, was the Moholy's conception of the significance of
photography and his ideas on graphic design,
mainspring of all his ideas and all his film and theatre: see for instance the section
activities. on `Typophoto' in Painting Photography
Film, op. cit.
24 Moholy regarded the experience of
organized colour-relationships (and of
organizing colour oneself) as 'biologically'
'The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical
Reproduction', in Illuminations, and universally necessary to physical and
Schocken paperback, New York 1969, p.227. psychological equilibrium. Yet he was
Benjamin's essay 'Das Kunstwerk im himself obviously more sensitive to value
Zeitalter seiner technischen relationships.
Reproduzierbarkeit' first appeared in 25 Painting Photography Film, op. cit.,
Zeitschrift für Sozialforschung V/1, 1936. pp.23-24.
'Benjamin, p.224. "Painting Photography Film, op. cit., p.26.
3 Ibid. 27 Lucia Moholy, op. cit., p.61, describes the
° Ibid., p.226. techniques she and Moholy-Nagy developed
' See for example A. Filippov, 'Production in collaboration.
Art' (1921), in The Tradition of 28 See also Moholy's own comments in
Constructivism, ed. Stephen Bann, London `Fotografie ist Lichtgestaltung', Bauhaus
1974, p.22. 2/1,1928.
The Dada and Constructivist Congress of " Painting Photography Film, op. cit., p.17.
1922 is an instance of this testing out of " The question of who 'invented' the
common ground. The Congress took place photogram is dealt with by Lucia Moholy,
at Weimar — seat of the Bauhaus. op.cit., pp.58-59.
Gabo and Pevsner, 'The Realistic " See Painting Photography Film, op. cit.,
Manifesto' (1920), in The Tradition of pp.20-21; also 'Light — A Medium of
Constructivism, op. cit., p.9. Plastic Expression' (1923) in Kostelanetz,
'Theo van Doesburg, 'Der Wille zum Stil', pp.117-8, where Moholy locates the
De Still 5/2-3, Feb—March 1922. `highest developmen,' of the photographic
His source would again have been Russian process in film.
Productivism. See, for instance, the related 32 See 'Light Architecture' (1936) in
ideas of A. Toporkov, 'Technological and Kostelanetz, p.115ff.
Artistic Form' (1921), in The Tradition of 33 It was originally exhibited encased in an
Constructivism, op. cit., p.27. apparatus providing a coloured light
" Benjamin, p.221. sequence, but was later set up against
" Moholy was to expand these ideas in a simple white spot-lamp.
`Neue Gestaltung in der Musik', Der Sturm The machine has more recently come to be
14/7, July 1923. known as the Light-Space Modulator. The
26