Perhaps nobody knows better the works of Moholy-Nagy than Oliver Botar, the exhibition's curator. The Canadian-born art historian and university professor is directing staff among the half-unpacked exhibition just 48 hours before it opens, but Botar still finds the time for an interview and a walk through the show.
The exhibition features works made between 1916 and 1923. It starts with a wall full of colourful drawings that Moholy-Nagy made on military-issue postcards when he was a soldier in World War I. The images are surprising to anybody who has seen only Moholy-Nagy's Constructivist works. They are figurative, even a bit na?ve.
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Botar notes that Moholy-Nagy was self-taught and tried out all of the fine arts. He started to draw as a youth.
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Botar says that Moholy-Nagy saw art differently than the average person. He did not see just one medium, but a multi-layered complexity of media. It was not until he was 22 years old that Moholy-Nagy became a part of the circle around the Hungarian painter Lajos Kassák and was first exposed to the world of painting and started learning how to draw. He learned well, Botar says, though figurative art was not important to him.
Moholy-Nagy learned in Germany that one can make art of anything, even from objects found on the street. The complexity of art is not only expressed in form, Botar says.
Asked why he picked Moholy-Nagy's early years as the subject of the exhibition, Botar says, in 1922, when Moholy-Nagy was just 27 years old and had worked with art four just four years, without any formal training, he had already become a master. And because Moholy-Nagy never studied under anyone, he could remain open. He always looked ahead and adopted the new.
Technical Detours: The Early Moholy-Nagy Reconsidered runs from April 25 until August 24. The National Gallery is the third stop for the exhibition, which has been to New York and to the Hungarian city of Pécs.
