László Moholy-Nagy (Hungarian, 1895-
1946)
Überschneidung [Intersection/Overlap],
1921
Signed “Moholy=Nagy” in pencil l.r., inscribed
“1921/CAT #...71” in felt-tip pen and identified
on a label from the Museum of Contemporary
Art, Chicago, Illinois, on the paper backing.
Collage on paper, 12 1/2 x 7 1/2 in. (31.8 x
19.1 cm), framed.
Condition: Not examined out of frame.
Provenance: From the artist by descent to his
wife, Sibyl Moholy-Nagy; acquired by sculptor
and former student of the artist Roy Gussow
(American, 1918-2011), Long Island City, New
York, c. 1970s; by family descent.
Literature: Museum of Contemporary Art
and Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum,
László Moholy-Nagy (Chicago: Museum
of Contemporary Art, 1969), p. 60, no. 71
(misprinted as 72. Überschneidung).Exhibitions: László Moholy-Nagy; An
Exhibition Organized by the Museum of
Contemporary Art and the Solomon R.
Guggenheim Museum...in cooperation
with the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, the
University Art Museum at the University
of California, Berkeley, and the Seattle Art
Museum, May 1969 to April 1970, no. 71.N.B. The present work exemplifies Moholy-
Nagy’s first phase of artistic development,
which manifested itself primarily through
collage. The medium of collage (as inherent
flat planes) allowed Moholy-Nagy to treat color
as autonomous forms. Primary colors were
used to provide contrast between space and
line, toward organizing “space segments”
rather than for illusionistic purposes which
serviced line. As Moholy-Nagy explains,
“Color... was transformed into a force loaded
with potential space articulation.”^1- Museum of Contemporary Art, 14.
$8,000-12,000
192 Additional information and photos at http://www.skinnerinc.com