László Moholy-Nagy

the photographer's 'foto moholy-nagy' stamp and annotated 'Fotoplastik' and numbered '1/15' by Lucia Moholy, the photographer's first wife, in pencil on the reverse, late 1920s-early 1930s

Sotheby's New York, 25 May 1982, Sale 4871M, Lot 454

László Moholy-Nagy, 60 Fotos (Berlin, 1930), pl. 9

Moholy-Nagy, Fotoplastiks: The Bauhaus Years (The Bronx Museum of the Arts, 1983), cat. no. 28, p. 37

In Focus: László Moholy-Nagy (The J. Paul Getty Museum, 1995), pl. 20

László Moholy-Nagy: The Art of Light (Madrid, 2010), p. 84

This photograph is on heavy double-weight paper with a very glossy surface. It is essentially in excellent condition, with minimal evidence of handling. Only visible upon close examination in high raking light are the following: a faint paperclip-sized impression in the diver's helmet; scattered tiny impressions that do not break the emulsion and matte deposits, likely old retouching; small scuffs; and minor soiling. The print has a thin white margin, and there is a tiny tear along the upper edge that does not intrude upon the image. The tip of the lower right margin corner is creased. The reverse of the print exhibits faint age-appropriate darkening, primarily at its edges.
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.

In his fotoplastik, Der Wasserkopf, Moholy combines three elements and, through their precise placement within a matrix of drawn lines, creates a web of interrelationships that are whimsically evocative, if not easily deciphered.  In making this image, Moholy appropriated a photograph of a smokestack by the German photographer Albert Renger-Patzsch, as well as two images of deep-sea divers.  Moholy clearly admired Renger-Patzsch’s smokestack image, and included it (among other images by the photographer) as a full-page illustration in his influential 1925 volume, Painting Photography Film.  Also in that book, Moholy incorporated the image into his graphic script for the proposed film, Dynamic of the Metropolis, in which it relates again to an image of a diver.  Moholy describes the action as follows: ‘Slanting chimney smokes; a DIVER emerges from it; sinks headfirst into the water.’  Moholy’s commentary on the film could easily apply to Der Wasserkopf, and to his fotoplastiks in general: ‘The elements of the visual have not in this film an absolute logical connection with one another; their photographic, visual relationships, nevertheless, make them knit together into a vital association of events in space and time . . . ’  For a lively discussion of this fotoplastik, and of Moholy’s relationship to Renger-Patzsch, see In Focus: László Moholy-Nagy, pp. 108-10.

This scarce fotoplastik was reproduced by Franz Roh in his 1930 retrospective monograph L. Moholy-Nagy: 60 Fotos. The photographs in that volume are believed to have been culled from the nearly 100 Moholy images shown in the seminal 1929 Film und Foto exhibition in Stuttgart, and it is likely that this image was exhibited there.  The print offered here was purchased in these rooms in 1982.  As of this writing it is believed that no other prints of Der Wasserkopf have been offered at auction.