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Am2

Am2

Artist: László Moholy-Nagy (American (born Hungary), 1895-1946)
Date: 1925
Dimensions:
Painting: 37 5/8 × 29 11/16 in. (95.6 × 75.4 cm)
Frame: 38 1/2 × 30 1/2 × 1 in. (97.8 × 77.5 × 2.5 cm)
Medium: Oil on canvas
Classification: Paintings
Credit Line: Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number: 1996.20
Label Text:In 1936 Swiss architect Sigfried Giedion wrote, “Berlin was a focus of artistic activity about the year 1920 for those imbued with the desire to enlarge the field of our optical perceptions. One of the most important studios in which these people were continually meeting, was that of László Moholy-Nagy.”

In his paintings, Moholy-Nagy (his second name is pronounced Nadj) often created bodiless architectural structures that include overlapping shapes of varying transparencies, giving the viewer a sense of depth despite the two-dimensional format.

Moholy-Nagy was a filmmaker, photographer, sculptor, painter, writer, and educator whose central focus was the infusion of technology and industry in his artworks. During his service in the Austro-Hungarian army, Moholy-Nagy began to create watercolors and sketches. Later, he became a professor at the Bauhaus school of art in Dessau, Germany where he painted AM2. In 1937, Moholy-Nagy became the director of the New Bauhaus graduate school in Chicago, now known as the Illinois Institute of Technology.

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