From the Harvard Art Museums’ collections Light Prop for an Electric Stage, 1930. Exhibition replica, constructed in 2006, through the courtesy of Hattula Moholy-Nagy.

Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College

Identification and Creation

Object Number: 2007.105
People: László Moholy-Nagy, American (Bacsborsod, Hungary 1895 - 1946 Chicago, Ill., USA)
Title: Light Prop for an Electric Stage, 1930. Exhibition replica, constructed in 2006, through the courtesy of Hattula Moholy-Nagy.
Classification: Sculpture
Work Type: sculpture
Date: 2006
Culture: Unidentified culture
Persistent Link: https://hvrd.art/o/318198

Physical Descriptions

Medium: Metal, plastics, glass, paint, and wood, with electric motor
Dimensions: 151 x 70 x 70 cm (59 7/16 x 27 9/16 x 27 9/16 in.)
231 lb.

Provenance

Tate Modern.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line: Harvard Art Museums/Busch-Reisinger Museum, Hildegard von Gontard Bequest Fund
Copyright: © Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
Accession Year: 2007
Object Number: 2007.105
Division: Modern and Contemporary Art
Contact: am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu; The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request.

Publication History

Joyce Tsai, The Paintings of Moholy-Nagy: The Shape of Things to Come, exh. cat., Santa Barbara Museum of Art (Santa Barbara, CA, 2015), 34-41, 82-83 (pl. 14),150, ill. (color)

Matthew S. Witkovsky, Carol Eliel, and Carol Vail, ed., Moholy-Nagy: Future Present, exh. cat., The Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, 2016), pp. 157, plate 178

Peter Schjeldahl, The Future Looked Bright: A Moholy-Nagy Retrospective, The New Yorker (New York, June 6 & 13, 2016), Vol. 92, No. 17, pp. 104-105

Joyce Tsai, Angela Chang, Matthew Battles, and Jeffrey Schnapp, László Moholy-Nagy’s Light Prop as Design Fiction: Perspectives on Conservation and Replication, Leonardo, MIT Press (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2017), vol. 50, no. 3, pp. 311-315, pp. 311-315

LWL-Museum für Kunst und Kultur, ed., Bauhaus and America: Experiments in Light and Movement, exh. cat., Karl Kerber Verlag (2018), pp. 138, 148, ill. (color)

Exhibition History

Light Display Machines: Two Works by László Moholy-Nagy, Harvard University Art Museums, Busch-Reisinger Museum, 07/21/2007 - 11/04/2007

Bauhaus 1919-1933: Workshops for Modernity, Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York, 11/08/2009 - 01/25/2010

Moholy: An Education of the Senses, Loyola University Museum of Art, Chicago, 02/10/2010 - 05/09/2010

MOHOLY-NAGY / IN MOTION, Museum of Modern Art, Hayama, Hayama, 04/16/2011 - 07/10/2011; The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, 07/20/2011 - 09/04/2011; Kawamura Memorial Museum of Art, 09/17/2011 - 12/11/2011

The Paintings of Moholy-Nagy: The Shape of Things to Come, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, 07/05/2015 - 09/27/2015

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

Bauhaus and America: Experiments in Light and Movement, LWL-Museum für Kunst und Kultur, 11/09/2018 - 03/10/2019

Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Hauser & Wirth, London, London, 05/17/2019 - 09/07/2019

Subjects and Contexts

The Bauhaus

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