The J. Paul Getty Museum

Das Lichtrequisit

Object Details

Title:

Das Lichtrequisit

Artist/Maker:

László Moholy-Nagy (American, born Hungary, 1895 - 1946)

Culture:

American

Place:

Berlin, Germany (Place Created)

Date:

1930

Medium:

Gelatin silver print

Object Number:

84.XP.912.2

Dimensions:

24 × 18.1 cm (9 7/16 × 7 1/8 in.)

Copyright:

© 2014 Estate of László Moholy-Nagy / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

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Object Description

Also called Light Prop for an Electric Stage, this kinetic sculpture that László Moholy-Nagy designed and photographed was intended to create light displays for theater, dance, or other performance spaces. With its gleaming glass and metal surfaces of mobile perforated disks, a rotating glass spiral, and a sliding ball, the Light-Space Modulatorcreated the effect of photograms in motion. As photographed here, the geometric complexity of the design and the shapes created by shadows and light convey the dynamic possibilities of both machine and camera.

Provenance
Provenance
1984 -

Daniel Wolf, Inc., Purchase

Exhibitions
Exhibitions
Experimental Photography: The Machine Age (September 26 to December 10, 1989)
  • The J. Paul Getty Museum (Malibu), September 26 to December 10, 1989
Vision in Motion: The Photographs of László Moholy-Nagy (June 27 to October 8, 1995)
  • The J. Paul Getty Museum (Malibu), June 27 to October 8, 1995
Moholy-Nagy: Future Present (May 27, 2016 to June 18, 2017)
  • Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York), May 27 to September 7, 2016
  • The Art Institute of Chicago, October 2, 2016 to January 3, 2017
  • Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Los Angeles), February 12 to June 18, 2017
Bibliography
Bibliography

Ware, Katherine.In Focus: Laszlo Moholy-Nagy. Photographs from the J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles: The J. Paul Getty Museum, 1995), p. 80-81, plate 42, ill.