Sibyl Moholy-Nagy, New York
Galerie Chalette, New York
Ethel Steuer Epstein, New York (acquired from the above and sold by the estate: Parke-Bernet Galleries, Inc., New York, April 6, 1967, lot 62)
Robert Schoelkopf Gallery, New York
Acquired from the above

San Francisco, M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, L. Moholy-Nagy, no. 5

Aluminum panel attached by four metal brackets to a wood artist's mount. Surface is slightly dirty, with some minor dirt and staining. There are two minor imperfections at the top edge of the aluminum panel, as well as a minor indentation to the upper left edge, perhaps original to the piece. The mount is painted white and there is some stable craquelure along the grain of the wood. Mount is slightly dirty with some surface scuffs and there are a few visible holes in the top edge from prior display. Overall the work is in very good condition.
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Through his changing affiliations with groups of radical European artists in the first half of the 20th century, Làszlò Moholy-Nagy followed a strict personal line of questioning about the ways in which new technologically-informed means of art production could produce original relationships between color, light, and space. This preoccupation would famously lead Moholy-Nagy to create his Light-Space Modulator (The Light Prop) (1922-30) (see fig. 1), a kinetic sculpture that produced a dazzling light display from juxtaposed reflective planes. The artist's twinned Bauhaus and Constructivist sensibilities, combined with his origins as a painter, primed him for material ingenuity and unconventional integrations of industrial and photographic technologies into art making. The present work, one of three paintings on a new aluminum material called silberit (hence the title Sil 3), is a rare example of Moholy-Nagy's faith in metal as a medium for his broadly-defined and frequently reincarnated concept of "light painting." Despite the work's streamlined, space-age appearance, Moholy-Nagy understood his metal painting as continuous with art historical light and color projects. He named stained glass windows as a model for light painting, and furthermore nodded to the Impressionist legacy as the source of curiosity about the innate qualities of color. He and his precursors sought to contrive situations in which color behaved of its own accord to produce exciting and unexpected results.

In a reflection on his career written in 1944, Moholy-Nagy summarized his material experimentation in pursuit of exemplary light and color relationships: "Simultaneously with the sculptures made from metal and glass, I turned toward the new industrial materials. I began to paint on aluminum, highly polished non-ferrous alloys...If I had not been afraid that these latter materials were not permanent, I would never have painted on canvas again. In working with these materials—uniformly colored, opaque or transparent plastics—I made discoveries which were instrumental in changing my painting technique. This had inevitable repercussions on my thinking concerning light problems. To produce true, primary relationships...was not the only reason for my use of smooth flat surfaces. It was also nearest to the transition of light into color and color into light... Light painting had arrived..." (Moholy-Nagy, "Abstract of an Artist," in Kristina Passuth, Moholy-Nagy, London, 1985, p. 382). Sil 3 is quite literally a shining example of Moholy-Nagy's gift for assembling sophisticated visual experiences from raw industrial materials.

Fig.1  Làszlò Moholy-Nagy, Light-Space Modulator (The Light Prop), 1922-30, various metals, plastic, wood and electric engine, Harvard University Art Museums

Fig. 2  1937 Moholy-Nagy exhibition at The London Gallery, including Light-Space Modulator and several works mounted in the manner of Sil 3