Moholy-Nagy: Future Present – NEW YORK – SOLOMON R. GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM

https://www.guggenheim.org/

The first comprehensive retrospective of the work of László Moholy-Nagy (1895–1946) to appear in the United States in nearly fifty years, this long overdue presentation will reveal a utopian artist who believed that art could work hand-in-hand with technology for the betterment of humanity. The exhibition will present an unparalleled opportunity to examine the career of this pioneering painter, photographer, sculptor, and filmmaker as well as graphic, exhibition, and stage designer, who was also an influential teacher at the Bauhaus, a prolific writer, and later the founder of Chicago’s Institute of Design. Among his radical innovations were experimentation with cameraless photography; the use of industrial materials in painting and sculpture; research with light, transparency, and movement; work at the forefront of abstraction; and the fluidity with which he moved between the fine and applied arts. The exhibition will include more than 300 collages, drawings, ephemera, films, paintings, photograms, photographs, photomontages, and sculptures, including works from public and private collections across Europe and the United States, some of which have never before been shown publicly in the U.S. Also on display will be The Room of the Present, a contemporary fabrication of an exhibition space originally conceived by Moholy-Nagy in 1930. It will include photographic reproductions, films, slides, and replicas of architecture, theater and industrial design including a 2006 replica of his kinetic Light Prop for an Electric Stage (1930). Though never realized during his lifetime, The Room of the Present illustrates Moholy’s belief in the power of images and various means by which to view them—a highly relevant paradigm in today’s constantly shifting and evolving technological world.

Moholy-Nagy: Future Present is organized by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Karole P. B. Vail, Curator, is the Guggenheim’s organizing curator for the exhibition, with the assistance of Ylinka Barotto, Curatorial Assistant, and Danielle Toubrinet, Exhibition Assistant.
This exhibition is organized by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
The New York presentation of Moholy-Nagy: Future Present is made possible by Lavazza.

Funding is generously provided by David Berg Foundation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary, The Hilla von Rebay Foundation, William Talbott Hillman Foundation, Robert Lehman Foundation, and Sotheby’s.

The Leadership Committee for the exhibition, chaired by Peter and Dede Lawson-Johnston, is gratefully acknowledged for its support, with special thanks to Stefan Edlis and Gael Neeson, Rachel and Jean-Pierre Lehmann, Rowland Weinstein, Fundación Almine y Bernard Ruiz-Picasso para el Arte, Achim Moeller, and Irene and Richard Frary.
Additional funding is also provided by the National Endowment for the Arts.