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A painting of gray, yellow and blue forms on a black background.

The painting shows five gray bars which rise from the bottom edge widening as they reach close to the top edge, the color darkens from left to right. A tapering yellow strip with a blue center rises in the center, it is bordered on the right with two gray bars. The gray and yellow bars overlay a yellow rhomboid shape. Thin red lines at the bottom form another rhomboid.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
BR61.30
People
László Moholy-Nagy, American (Bacsborsod, Hungary 1895 - 1946 Chicago, Ill., USA)
Title
Construction
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
1922
Culture
Hungarian
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/222926

Location

Location
Level 1, Room 1520, Modern and Contemporary Art, Art in Germany Between the Wars
View this object's location on our interactive map

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Oil on panel
Dimensions
54.3 x 45.6 x 1.5 cm (21 3/8 x 17 15/16 x 9/16 in.)
frame: 70.8 x 62.2 x 10.8 cm (27 7/8 x 24 1/2 x 4 1/4 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • inscription: verso, c.r., black ink: Construction, 1922
    [hand not identified]
  • inscription: verso, u.r., black, in artist's hand: MOHOLY
    L. MOHOLY-NAGY

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Lydia Dorner, gift; to Busch-Reisinger Museum, 1961.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Busch-Reisinger Museum, Gift of Lydia Dorner in memory of Dr. Alexander Dorner
Accession Year
1961
Object Number
BR61.30
Division
Modern and Contemporary Art
Contact
am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • Hans Hildebrandt, Die Kunst des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts, Handbuch der Kunstwissenschaft, Akademische Verlagsgesellschaft Athenaion (Wildpark-Potsdam, 1924), p. 402
  • Charles L. Kuhn, German Expressionism and Abstract Art, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA, 1957), n.p., fig. 35
  • Samuel Cauman, The Living Museum, Experiences of an Art Historian and Museum Director: Alexander Dorner, New York University Press (New York, 1958), pp. 98-99
  • Alexander Dorner, The Way Beyond "Art", New York University Press (New York, 1958)
  • Peter Nisbet and Joseph Koerner, The Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University Art Museums, ed. Peter Nisbet, Harvard University Art Museums and Scala Publishers Ltd. (Cambridge, MA and London, England, 2007), p. 122
  • Megan Luke, Kurt Schwitters Space, Image, Exile, University of Chicago Press (Chicago, IL, 2014), pg. 61; fig. 17
  • Matthew S. Witkovsky, Carol Eliel, and Carol Vail, ed., Moholy-Nagy: Future Present, exh. cat., The Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, 2016), p. 49, plate 025
  • Laura Muir, Object Lessons: The Bauhaus and Harvard, Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, 2021), pp. 252, 278, plate 17, ill. (color)

Exhibition History

  • Kabinett der Abstrakten, Provinzial-Museum Hannover, 01/01/1927 - 12/31/1928
  • 19th- and 20th-Century Paintings and Sculpture from the Museum's Collection, Harvard University Art Museums, Busch-Reisinger Museum, Cambridge, 06/11/1980 - 08/31/1980
  • Art of the Weimar Era, Busch-Reisinger Museum, Cambridge, 04/05/1982 - 05/22/1982
  • Modell Bauhaus, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin-Kreuzberg, 07/22/2009 - 10/04/2009
  • 32Q: 1520 Art in Germany Between the Wars (Interwar and Bauhaus), Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 04/04/2016; Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 08/03/2017 - 12/10/2018; Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 08/05/2019 - 01/01/2050
  • Moholy-Nagy: Future Present, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 05/27/2016 - 09/07/2016; The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, 10/02/2016 - 01/03/2017; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, 02/12/2017 - 06/18/2017
  • The Bauhaus and Harvard, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 02/08/2019 - 07/28/2019

Subjects and Contexts

  • The Bauhaus

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Modern and Contemporary Art at am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu