Born in Budapest, Kertész moved to Paris in 1925 and immersed himself in the artistic life of the city. As seen in this idiosyncratic, lyrical view of the iconic Eiffel Tower, he blended Cubist and Surrealist influences with a photo-journalistic approach. Kertész made this photograph to illustrate a magazine article written by a fellow Hungarian expatriate, Gyula Halász (soon renamed Brassaï), to celebrate the tower’s fortieth anniversary.
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Inscription: Signed in pencil on print, verso CL [sideways]: "A. Kertesz"; stamped in ink on print, verso C [sideways]: "PHOTO BY // ANDRÉ KERTÉSZ"; inscribed in pencil on print, verso CR [sideways]: "Paris // 1929 // page 137."; inscribed in pencil on print, verso UC [sideways]: "p 137"; inscribed in pencil on print, verso UR, UC, C [cropping notations]: "118 + // 10 3/4 [arrows to left and right edges] // 54-2";
[Edwynn Houk Gallery to Waddell, December 1, 1983]; John C. Waddell
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The New Vision: Photography between the World Wars. The Ford Motor Company Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 23–December 31, 1989.
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. "The New Vision: Photography between the World Wars. The Ford Motor Company Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art," February 28–April 22, 1990.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art. "The New Vision: Photography between the World Wars. The Ford Motor Company Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art," May 10–July 15, 1990.
High Museum of Art. "The New Vision: Photography between the World Wars. The Ford Motor Company Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art," February 5–April 28, 1991.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. "The New Vision: Photography between the World Wars. The Ford Motor Company Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art," June 8–August 4, 1991.
IVAM, Centre Julio Gonzalez, Valencia. "The New Vision, IVAM, Centre Julio Gonzalez, Valencia," January 20, 1995–March 26, 1995.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Paris as Muse: Photography, 1840s – 1930s," January 27–May 4, 2014.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Reimagining Modernism - Photographs Rotation 11," November 24, 2017–June 25, 2018.
Naef, Weston J., Sandra S. Phillips, and David Travis. André Kertész: Of Paris and New York. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1985. no. 82, p. 170.
Hambourg, Maria Morris. The New Vision: Photography between the World Wars, Ford Motor Company Collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1989. no. 10.
André Kertész (American (born Hungary), Budapest 1894–1985 New York)
1946, printed ca. 1978
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