About This Artwork

André Kertész
American, born Hungary, 1894–1985

Mondrian's Eyeglasses and Pipe, Paris, 1926

Gelatin silver print
15.7 x 18.2 cm; (mount) 32.5 x 24.7 cm
Signed and stamped on verso
Julien Levy Collection, Gift of Jean and Julien Levy, 1975.1137

In 1926–28, during the years André Kertész was establishing his reputation as a fine artist and a talent in the illustrated press market, he made a highly distinctive body of photographs printed on postcard stock. This heavy paper stock, coated on one side in photosensitive salts and provided on the other with marks for an address and stamp, was intended for the creation of personalized postcards. Playfully cropping and resizing his images in this intimate format, Kertész asserted new terms for the treatment of photographs as physical, printed objects. He then sent the results to friends through the mail, returning his inventive creations—including such now-legendary works as this view of the painter Piet Mondrian’s studio and Satyric Dancer—to the mainstream of ordinary postal communication.

Exhibition, Publication and Ownership Histories

Exhibition History

AIC, "Andre Kertesz 1894-1985 A Centennial Celebration," December 3, 1994-April 9, 1995. (David Travis)

AIC, "Photography on Display: Modern Treasures," May 9–September 13, 2009.

Publication History

1999. “André Kertész and Avant Garde Photography of the Twenties and Thirties.” Annely Juda Fine Art Gallery/BAS Printers. p. 46. (other print of this image)

Greenough, Sarah, Robert Gurbo, and Sarah Kennel. 2005. “André Kertész.” Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art/Princeton University Press. p. 51. (other print of this image)

Johnson, William S., Mark Rice, and Carla Williams.1999. "Photography from 1839 to Today: George Eastman House, Rochester, NY." eds. Mulligan, Therese, and David Wooters. Cologne: Taschen. p. 528. (other print of this image)

Kertész, André. 1966. “André Kertész.” ed. Anna Fárová. New York: Paragraphic Books. p. 47. (other print of this image)

Kertész, André. 1972. “André Kertész: Sixty Years of Photography, 1912-1972.” ed. Nicolas Ducrot. Grossman Publishers. p. 116. (other print of this image)

Kertész, André. 1982. “André Kertész: A Lifetime of Perception." ed. Jane Corkin. Harry N. Abrams. p. 201. (other print of this image)

Phillips, Sandra, Jean-Claude Lemagny, Michel Frizot, Isabelle Jammes, and Pierre Bonhomme. 1992. “André Kertész in Paris: Photographien 1925–1936.” Schirmer/Mosel. pl. 48. (other print of this image)

Phillips, Sandra S., David Travis, and Weston J. Naef. 1985. “André Kertész: Of Paris and New York.” Exh. cat. Art Institute of Chicago/Metropolitan Museum of Art/Thames and Hudson. p. 136. cat. 21.

Travis, David. 1976. "Photographs from the Julien Levy Collection, Starting with Atget." Exh. cat. Art Institute of Chicago. (back cover).




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