Lucia Moholy, a hundred years later
14/06/2016.
Loewe Foundation [MAD] Spain 02.06>28.08.2016
metalocus, JOSE JUAN BARBA
metalocus, JOSE JUAN BARBA
Lucia Moholy could not have imagined in 1915, when she entered in her diary her new interest for photography, that she would become the leading photographer at the Bauhaus, where she began her collaboration in 1923. Until then, photography had not been part of the school’s activities.
AUTORRETRATO DE LUCIA MOHOLY, 1930 - Courtesy of Bauhaus-Archive Berlin
Lucia Moholy, Metallwerkstatt Bauhaus, Entwurf: Marianne Brandt, 1924 © Lucia Moholy, Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin
Lucia Moholy, Bauhaus Dessau: Werkstattgebäude von Südwesten, um 1926 © Lucia Moholy, Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin
Lucia Moholy, Walter Gropius, 1926 © Lucia Moholy, Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin
Orthodox Monk, Monastery of Praskvica, Yugoslavia, 1930 - credit Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin
Exhibition entry. Photography © Álvaro Lamas.
The exhibition presented by the Loewe Foundation with Fotostiftung Schweiz as part of PhotoEspaña 2016 shows a selection of 48 photographs taken during the fifteen years Lucia Moholy worked as a photographer. Her contribution to culture as a photographer, art critic, historian and educator is enduring and of increasingly recognised significance, and her work has proved particularly valuable in promoting the aesthetics and philosophy of the Bauhaus.
The Bauhaus was an experimentation and investigation center, where art combined with technology resulted in the most innovating design for architecture and utilitarian objects. There, Lucia Moholy documented daily activity in the studios and workshops. She also portrayed Paul Klee, Kandinsky or Anni Albers, among many other artists, whom she shared experiences for five years. Her photographic work has been essential to propagate, through books magazines and brochures, the school’s philosophy and aesthetics.
The exhibition 'Lucia Moholy, a hundred years later' includes some of the extraordinary portraits of colleagues and friends of the Bauhaus, as well as photographs of the interior and exterior of their departments (including new building in Dessau) and a selection of images showing eloquently functionality and design of the products that were created in the workshops of the school.
These photographs, which were used in the press and in official publications of the Bauhaus, Moholy show a holder of an authentic visual personality, formally daring and atypically acute when portraying people and objects. However, for various reasons, Moholy did not get the recognition he deserved and who fought until his death in Zurich in 1989.
In the images of the sample we can easily appreciate the aesthetic interests of Moholy and formal inventiveness, evident in the use of close-ups, chiaroscuro, unusual angles and other unconventional treatments for your time. The intelligent use of shadows and contrast gives his compositions a tension and graphic complexity that will harbinger of further developments in modernism.
This exhibition presents some of the work of an artist, photography historian and art critic whose legacy is still, perhaps, not properly acknowledged.
The Bauhaus was an experimentation and investigation center, where art combined with technology resulted in the most innovating design for architecture and utilitarian objects. There, Lucia Moholy documented daily activity in the studios and workshops. She also portrayed Paul Klee, Kandinsky or Anni Albers, among many other artists, whom she shared experiences for five years. Her photographic work has been essential to propagate, through books magazines and brochures, the school’s philosophy and aesthetics.
The exhibition 'Lucia Moholy, a hundred years later' includes some of the extraordinary portraits of colleagues and friends of the Bauhaus, as well as photographs of the interior and exterior of their departments (including new building in Dessau) and a selection of images showing eloquently functionality and design of the products that were created in the workshops of the school.
These photographs, which were used in the press and in official publications of the Bauhaus, Moholy show a holder of an authentic visual personality, formally daring and atypically acute when portraying people and objects. However, for various reasons, Moholy did not get the recognition he deserved and who fought until his death in Zurich in 1989.
In the images of the sample we can easily appreciate the aesthetic interests of Moholy and formal inventiveness, evident in the use of close-ups, chiaroscuro, unusual angles and other unconventional treatments for your time. The intelligent use of shadows and contrast gives his compositions a tension and graphic complexity that will harbinger of further developments in modernism.
This exhibition presents some of the work of an artist, photography historian and art critic whose legacy is still, perhaps, not properly acknowledged.
"The work of Lucia Moholy was essential to know the philosophy and the aesthetics of the Bauhaus," explains Maria Millan, curator of the exhibition.
"Get synthesis and exquisite beauty. Do not be indifferent," said Sheila Loewe, president of the Loewe Foundation.
More information
Venue
Loewe Gran Vía, Gran Vía 8, 28013 Madrid. Spain
Dates
From June 2 to August 28, 2016.
Lucia MOHOLY
Lucia Moholy was born in Prague in 1894, where she studied philosophy and art history and began her professional career in Germany as an editor and writer for various publishing houses. She became interested in photography in 1915 and after marrying artist László Moholy-Nagy, joined the Bauhaus in 1923. Photographed its famous architecture and interior spaces with furniture, breaking her photographic style established practices.
After leaving Germany, Lucia Moholy moved to London and then to Zurich where she continued writing about photography. For years he devoted herself to recover the negative, which had been dispersed since leaving Berlin.
After leaving Germany, Lucia Moholy moved to London and then to Zurich where she continued writing about photography. For years he devoted herself to recover the negative, which had been dispersed since leaving Berlin.
