  
  About the Artwork
  
  
  L&Atilde;&iexcl;szl&Atilde;&sup3; 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
  L&Atilde;&iexcl;szl&Atilde;&sup3; 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.
  
  
  
  
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  Medium
  Oil on plastic
  
  
  Dimensions
  Overall: 18 1/8 &Atilde;&#151; 25 1/2 inches (46 &Atilde;&#151; 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&acirc;&#128;&#153;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&acirc;&#128;&#148;no longer assigned&acirc;&#128;&#148;that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups.
  
  
  
  48.3
  
  
  Copyright
  Restricted
  
  
  
