About This Artwork

László Moholy-Nagy
American, born Hungary, 1895–1946

Berlin Radio Tower, c. 1928

Gelatin silver print
36 x 25.5 cm
Stamped on verso
Julien Levy Collection, Special Photography Acquisition Fund, 1979.84

This photograph betrays the fascinating relationship between avant-garde art and photography in print. László Moholy-Nagy knew the skewed views of Aleksandr Rodchenko, which he almost certainly saw in reproduction. He had quite likely also seen the newly built Radio Tower illustrated in a mid-1927 photo-essay by fellow Hungarian émigré and leading picture editor Stefan Lorant, “The World from a Bird’s- and Worm’s-Eye Perspective” (which was itself influenced by avant-garde ideas). Moholy accorded great prominence to his own shot of the Berlin tower; he reproduced it and other photographs made atop the tower in articles declaiming what he called the “new vision.” Other photographers from the German-language orbit, such as Ilse Bing, may well have been inspired by these articles to create their dense, plunging views of the Eiffel Tower.

Exhibition, Publication and Ownership Histories

Exhibition History

AIC, "Industrial Effects: Twentieth Century Photographs from the Permanent Collection," July 24-October 17, 1993.

Berlin, Germany, Berlinische Galerie, "Moscow/Berlin-Berlin/Moscow," September 3, 1995–January 7, 1996; traveled to Moscow, Russia, Puskin State Museum, March 1–July 1, 1996.

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

Publication History

Hight, Eleanor M. 1985. "Moholy-Nagy: Photography and Film in Weimar Gallery." Exh. cat. Wellesley College Museum. p. 76. fig. 37.

Varnedoe, Kirk. 2006. "Pictures of Nothing: Abstract Art Since Pollock." Princeton University Press. p. 102.