Oscar Nerlinger

photogram, a unique object, the photographer's BERLIN-CHARLOTTENBERG 5/BERNBURGSTR. 25 studio stamp and typed title and caption labels affixed to the reverse, 1928

Collection of Julien Levy

Prakapas Gallery, New York, 1998

 

This unique photogram, on matte-surface double-weight paper, is in generally excellent condition. Upon close inspection, two small rust-colored deposits are visible in the spherical shape. The print is trimmed to the image, and upon close examination, light wear and some attendant chipping to the edges and corners are visible. The reverse is lightly soiled. A barely-discernible cease in the upper left corner on the reverse does not affect the image. The typed caption reads 'fotogram.' The photographer's studio stamp reads: 'OSCAR NERLINGER/BERLIN - CHARLOTTENBERG 5/BERNBURGSTR. 25/TEL.: WESTEND 918.' Also on the reverse are the following notations: '177' in pink ink; '7' [circled] in orange crayon and crossed out in blue crayon; and '97:269' in pencil.
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Oscar Nerlinger and his wife Alice Lex-Nerlinger (1893-1975), both experimental photographers and graphic designers, contributed to the avant-garde art scene in Berlin in the first half of the 20th century. Nerlinger was a painter, graphic designer, and maker of animated films; Alice Lex had studied with the collagists Hannah Höch and John Heartfield. In the early 1920s, Oscar Nerlinger was part of the well-known 'Der Sturm' group, centered around the eponymous arts magazine. In the mid-1920s, the Nerlingers began to experiment with photographs and photograms, such as the one offered here. 

Photograms made by the Nerlingers have a distinctive look: their technique combined the photogram with photocollage, using cut pieces of translucent paper, often tissue paper, which they layered in abstract or figurative compositions. The graphic element in these works is always strong. The Nerlingers' photogram-photocollage  technique was used to superb effect in a series of illustrations they created for a children's book.

In 1928, the Nerlingers joined the Communist Party and became committed supporters of workers' rights. When the Nazis came to power in 1933, they were forced to abandon their experimental, and often politically-tinged, work, and Alice was briefly imprisoned. After the Second World War, they made a political statement by moving to East Berlin. Oscar Nerlinger became a professor of art in his last decades, and Alice continued her work as a prominent graphic designer.

This photograph comes originally from the collection of Julien Levy, who included work by Nerlinger in his 1932 Modern European Photography exhibition, alongside photographs by Herbert Bayer, André Kertész, László Moholy-Nagy, Man Ray, and others.