László Moholy-Nagy: Nature of Light

 

László Moholy-Nagy of Hungarian origin is one of the most versatile and influential artists of the twentieth century. His work included painting, photography, film, visual design, art education, sculpture, industrial design, typography and advertising. He was the most daring experimenter, whose modern vision and formal language made him the most important theoretical and practical master of the "new vision". His work in the graphic arts - as a teacher at the Bauhaus and also as the founder of a school in Chicago - is completed by his work in regards to education and theory.

Throughout his life, he had to continue and restart his creative work in other countries several times, yet he believed with unbroken optimism that if art is an activity both accessible to all and shared by all, then the world would become a better place as a result.

His entire oeuvre was influenced by his observation and research into the nature of light and its power to define space: as shown in his photograms of the 1920s, which were pictures created without using a camera. His iconic Light-Space Modulator piece, and his plastys, made from transparent surfaces and occasionally pained, are also examples of this quest.