

László Moholy-Nagy Hungarian American, 1895-1946
W Sil, 1931
ink and gouache on paper
45 x 60 cm
17.7 x 23.6 in
17.7 x 23.6 in
W Sil relates to Moholy-Nagy’s early kinetic sculpture Light-Space Modulator (1920-30), a sculpture which created a play of shadows and reflections, generated by the machine’s rotating elements. A small number...
W Sil relates to Moholy-Nagy’s early kinetic sculpture Light-Space Modulator (1920-30), a sculpture which created a play of shadows and reflections, generated by the machine’s rotating elements. A small number of two-dimensional works from this time exist, which evoke the arrangement of curved objects and delineated lines of shadow. A related oil and graphite composition, entitled A XX, resides in the permanent collection of Musée National d’Art Moderne/Centre Pompidou, Paris. There is a distinct celestial quality to W Sil, with the forms evoking a planetary body and cosmic forces or phenomena. However, it is equally redolent of something more technological and man-made, compounded by the simple title (characteristic of Moholy- Nagy), that points to his fascination with the serial and depersonalised production of the industrial world.