Space Modulator, Red over Black

1946

László Moholy-Nagy American, 1895 - 1946

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About the Artwork

László Moholy-Nagy was a Hungarian contributor to the International Style in Europe between the wars. The Bauhaus, an experimental art school in Germany, counted him among its star faculty. When the Nazis closed the school in 1933, Moholy-Nagy fled to Holland, then to England, and finally settled in Chicago, where he founded an American version of the Bauhaus.
The 1940s innovative, war-driven technology and early notions about the conquest of space gave the undaunted immigrant artist a final boost of creative energy before leukemia ended his brilliant career. The plastic developed for airplane windshields and gun turrets provided Moholy-Nagy with the ideal material to mold, pierce, and engrave. The motif in Space Modulator derived from photographs the artist shot of the street below through the ornate railing of his balcony. The result, with its curvilinear shapes, parallel and crossing lines, and airy perforations, was abstract in a futuristic way.

Title Space Modulator, Red over Black

Artwork Date 1946

Artist László Moholy-Nagy

Life Dates 1895 - 1946

Nationality Please note: Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events. Some definitions include: Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation. American

Culture Please note: Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group. ----------

Medium Oil on plastic

Dimensions Overall: 18 1/8 × 25 1/2 inches (46 × 64.8 cm)

Classification Paintings

Department European Modern Art to 1970

Credit Gift of W. Hawkins Ferry

Accession Number This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection. Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings. For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups. 48.3

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Provenance

1948–present, gift to Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

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Exhibition History

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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.

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Published References

Harriman, Virginia. "Red over Black." Bulletin of the DIA 29, no. 1 (1949-1950): pp. 11-12 (ill.).

The W. Hawkins Ferry Collection. Exh. cat., DIA. Detroit, 1966, unpaginated, no. 35 (ill.).

Moholy-Nagy, Laszlo. Exh. cat., Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago and Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Chicago, 1969, pp. 43 (ill.), 59, no. 65.

Rattner, Ruth. "Projecting the Fourth Dimension: Two Constructions by Lázló Moholy-Nagy." Bulletin of the DIA 61, no. 4 (1984): pp. 4-13, pp. 5, 7 (ill.), 9, 12.

Duvernois, Isabelle. "Moholy-Nagy’s 'Vision in Motion' Stilled: A Study of Wire Mesh Plastic Laminate Deterioration." In Anagpic Student Conference Papers. Ottawa, 2003, pp. 20-21.

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