[Nude (Negative)]

The Hungarian painter, designer, filmmaker, and Bauhaus professor László Moholy-Nagy pushed the boundaries of photography when he began to investigate the medium in 1922. He explored the myriad possibilities of light-sensitive materials and produced some of the first modern photograms by placing everyday objects on sheets of photographic paper and exposing them to light. The resulting spatial, tonal, and gestural qualities of these abstract compositions challenged traditional modes of perception and representation. Moholy-Nagy was also fascinated by the visual effect of reversing the tones of his photographs through the production of negative prints, as seen here. In this nude study, he placed a figure in a verdant landscape, constructing a resonant play of light and dark that the eye cannot still.