Lot Essay
From 1931-32, Bayer created 10 photomontages that were meant to represent fragments of the artist's dream world or interactions relevant to his life and work, which he titled "Man and Dream". This sequence was concluded in 1959 with an 11th photomontage, In Search of Times Past, that Bayer intended as a contemplative overview of the entire series (although not included in the portfolio).
The last major group of photographs Bayer created in Europe in 1936 was his series of fotoplastiken. Bayer defined the work as sculptural elements like frames, rings, or wheels placed in spatial arrangements with proper lighting... . this was then photographed, the print obtained was worked over with brush and airbrush and then rephotographed... the prints were then made from the negatives obtained.
Arthur Cohen, in his compendium on Bayer's work, deftly defines the differences between the two bodies of work: in the photomontages, the elements are real; the imagination functions as the faculty in photomontage of congregating from diverse sources a variety of elements, each of which shares a portion of the real. In (the) fotoplastiken, however, Bayer has moved away from the real to the fabulation and construction of sculptural elements ... which ... allude unintentionally not the real that has been photographed but the imagined that might have been painted.
This complete double-set of portfolios contains all of the signature images of Bayer's photographic career, imagery that reflected Bayer's
expressiveness in the surrealist modality. As Eduard Jaguer, in his "Les Mystères de la Chambre Noire", le Surréalisme et la photographie (Paris, 1982), p. 103 praised Bayer as: the most important photographer of the Bauhaus - along with Moholy-Nagy and Umbo ... equally the nearest to the surrealist mentality in his photographic investigations.
The titles of the photomontages include: Profile en Face 1929, The Language of Letters 1931, Look Into Life 1931, Bone Breaker 1931, Creation 1932, Self-Portrait 1932, Monument 1932, Good Night Marie 1932, The Kiss 1932, Lonely Metropolitan 1932 and In Search of Times Past.
The titles of the photoplastiks include: Hands Act 1932, Metamorphosis 1936, Wall with Shingles 1936, Nature Morte 1936, Bones with Sea 1936, Standing Objects 1936, Shortly Before Dawn 1936, Stable Wall 1936, Still Life 1936, and Winter 1936.
This is the first time the portfolios have been offered in their entirety at auction.
The last major group of photographs Bayer created in Europe in 1936 was his series of fotoplastiken. Bayer defined the work as sculptural elements like frames, rings, or wheels placed in spatial arrangements with proper lighting... . this was then photographed, the print obtained was worked over with brush and airbrush and then rephotographed... the prints were then made from the negatives obtained.
Arthur Cohen, in his compendium on Bayer's work, deftly defines the differences between the two bodies of work: in the photomontages, the elements are real; the imagination functions as the faculty in photomontage of congregating from diverse sources a variety of elements, each of which shares a portion of the real. In (the) fotoplastiken, however, Bayer has moved away from the real to the fabulation and construction of sculptural elements ... which ... allude unintentionally not the real that has been photographed but the imagined that might have been painted.
This complete double-set of portfolios contains all of the signature images of Bayer's photographic career, imagery that reflected Bayer's
expressiveness in the surrealist modality. As Eduard Jaguer, in his "Les Mystères de la Chambre Noire", le Surréalisme et la photographie (Paris, 1982), p. 103 praised Bayer as: the most important photographer of the Bauhaus - along with Moholy-Nagy and Umbo ... equally the nearest to the surrealist mentality in his photographic investigations.
The titles of the photomontages include: Profile en Face 1929, The Language of Letters 1931, Look Into Life 1931, Bone Breaker 1931, Creation 1932, Self-Portrait 1932, Monument 1932, Good Night Marie 1932, The Kiss 1932, Lonely Metropolitan 1932 and In Search of Times Past.
The titles of the photoplastiks include: Hands Act 1932, Metamorphosis 1936, Wall with Shingles 1936, Nature Morte 1936, Bones with Sea 1936, Standing Objects 1936, Shortly Before Dawn 1936, Stable Wall 1936, Still Life 1936, and Winter 1936.
This is the first time the portfolios have been offered in their entirety at auction.