a unique object, on printing-out-paper, signed by the photographer in pencil on the reverse, matted, framed, 1920s

Property of a Midwestern collector

Sotheby's New York, 1 and 2 November 198🧜🗹8, Sale 5766, Lot 380

Acquired by the Quillan Company from the above

Zürich, Kunsthaus, Anwesenheit bei Abweenheit: Das Fotogramm und die Kunst des 20 Jahrhunderts (Presence through Absence: The Photogram and Art of the 20th Century), March - May 1990

Jill Quasha, The Quillan Collection of Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Photographs (New York, 1991), pl. 1 (this print)

Related images:

László Moholy-Nagy: Photographies, photomontages, photogrammes (Paris, 1998), pl. 23

Renate Heyne, Floris M. Neusüss, and Herbert Molderings, László Moholy-Nagy: Fotogramme 1922-1943 (Essen: Museum Folkwang, 1996), p. 181

This unique, early photogram is rendered on printing-out-paper with rich red-brown tones. When examined closely in raking light, three very faint linear indentations, measuring 5 by 3.5 by 5 inches, are visible. Also visible in raking light are several tiny and unobtrusive handling creases, and the faint impression of Moholy's writing from the reverse of the print. None of these issues breaks the emulsion. There is some very faint unevenness in the print's surface in the upper left corner, visible only upon close examination in raking light. While these issues are apparent when the print is examined closely, they are not immediately apparent and they do not diminish its impact in any way.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Throughout his long and multi-faceted career as a designer, sculptor, printmaker, filmmaker, and teacher, László Moholy-Nagy worked continuously as a photographer.  As Floris Neusüss, the Moholy authority, has so beautifully expressed it, 'In his youth, Moholy had already developed an almost ecstatic relationship to light.' Moholy's photograms are perhaps the purest and most spontaneous records of this ecstatic relationship, and they informed his work in all other areas.  Calling himself a Lichtner, a 'light-painter' or 'light manipulator,' Moholy worked with the phꦕotogram over a course of three decades, beginning in Germany in 1922 and continuing throughout his work in Chicago in the 1940s.   

The photogram offered here, on printing-out paper, was exposed by Moholy in daylight, and created by him not over a period of seconds, but over a period of minutes.   The daylight paper allowed Moholy to see the image as it evolved, giving him the opportunity to move, alter, or create new forms and compositions as the image emerged.  In his 1928 essay, Photographic Manipulations of Light, Moholy praised the use of daylight paper for photograms, for 'within a short time one can observe the formation of the contours of the object and its shadow on bright layers in a dark ground' (quoted in Bauhaus Photography, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, 1982, p. 126).  🍸