Three City Symphonies by László Moholy-Nagy
László Moholy-Nagy (1895-1946), Still from Impressionen vom alten Marseiller Hafen (Vieux Port) (Impressions of the Old Marseille Harbor). From the George Eastman Museum Collections.
László Moholy-Nagy (1895-1946), Still from Großstadt-Zigeuner (Big City Gypsies). From the George Eastman Museum Collections.
László Moholy-Nagy (1895-1946), Still from Berliner Stilleben (Berlin Still Life). From the George Eastman Museum Collections.
This trio of short films by Hungarian-born László Moholy-Nagy (1895-1946) were made between 1926 and 1932 and show the artist’s visionary approach to portraying life in urban spaces. An influential teacher at the revolutionary Bauhaus school of art in Germany, Moholy-Nagy created significant bodies of work in design, painting, photography, sculpture, and filmmaking.
With the intention of making a new type of social realist film, Moholy-Nagy brought his hand-held camera to the bustling streets of Berlin in Berliner Stilleben. People at work, children playing and even a trolley ride are among the subjects visited in Moholy-Nagy’s portrait of the frenetic pulse of Weimar-era Berlin.
Moholy-Nagy travelled to Marseilles in the South of France in 1929 to make Impressionen vom alten Marseiller Hafen (Vieux Port). Concentrating on the economically troubled Vieux Port area, Moholy-Nagy wanted to raise awareness of the way people lived in a part of the city avoided by most visitors.
Filmed in Berlin in 1932, Großstadt-Zigeuner captures a rare look at life in an encampment of Roma people as they work, play, and even quarrel at a crucial turning point. As Moholy-Nagy was making the film, the rise of the Nazi party was gathering strength and soon the Roma population in German-controlled territories would be among the millions of people targeted by the Nazis for genocide during the Holocaust.
In 1934, Moholy-Nagy would have his own good reasons to leave Germany. His Jewish roots and the Nazi branding of avant-garde art as “degenerate” would eventually bring him to the United States in 1937. Settling in Chicago, he founded The New Bauhaus school in the spirit of the original. In his role as director, Moholy-Nagy saw the school flourish, but in 1945 he was diagnosed with leukemia and died in 1946 at the age of 51.
The exhibition screens the three films on a loop through August 17. Film details below:
Berliner Stilleben (Berlin Still Life), Germany ca. 1926-1931, 10 min., silent.
Impressionen vom alten Marseiller Hafen (Vieux Port) (Impressions of the Old Marseille Harbor), Germany ca. 1929-1932, 11 min., silent.
Großstadt-Zigeuner (Big City Gypsies), Germany 1932, 15 min., silent.
All original 35mm films transferred to HD digital format