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Lot Essay
In 1935 Moholy-Nagy fled Germany and for a short time lived and worked in England. One supporter during this period was E.J. Power. One of the greatest collectors of Modernist paintings of the period, he purchased the present photograph direct from the artist, prior to his leaving for America.
The Hallmark Collection, Kansas City, has a variant of this photograph. In the book on their collection it is discussed in detail:
"Moholy-Nagy often used dramatic or unusual vantage points in his quest to reinvent visual experience. One of the most remarkable is 'Rothenburg...' To make this view, Moholy-Nagy (like innumerable other tourists before and after him) climbed a narrow ladder to the top of the spire above the Rothenburg town hall. Though this vantage point provided a beautiful view of the medieval village and the surrounding contryside, he aimed his camera steeply downward, ignoring the picturesque panorama in favor of the disorienting detail. The tilted frame and dizzying viewpoint charge the picture with dynamism and instability, transforming a quiet street scene into a complex arrangement of shapes textures, and light. This image fully conveys Moholy-Nagy's unconventional vision, and his fascination for a pictorial realm midway between the conventional categories of 'realism' and abstraction." (Davis, An American Century of Photography, Hallmark Cards, 1999, p. 140.)
Another aerial view by Moholy-Nagy of a street in Rothenburg is in the collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles where it is dated 1926-28. (See In Focus: Laszló Moholy-Nagy, The J. Paul Getty Museum, 1995, pl. 26, p. 51.)
The Hallmark Collection, Kansas City, has a variant of this photograph. In the book on their collection it is discussed in detail:
"Moholy-Nagy often used dramatic or unusual vantage points in his quest to reinvent visual experience. One of the most remarkable is 'Rothenburg...' To make this view, Moholy-Nagy (like innumerable other tourists before and after him) climbed a narrow ladder to the top of the spire above the Rothenburg town hall. Though this vantage point provided a beautiful view of the medieval village and the surrounding contryside, he aimed his camera steeply downward, ignoring the picturesque panorama in favor of the disorienting detail. The tilted frame and dizzying viewpoint charge the picture with dynamism and instability, transforming a quiet street scene into a complex arrangement of shapes textures, and light. This image fully conveys Moholy-Nagy's unconventional vision, and his fascination for a pictorial realm midway between the conventional categories of 'realism' and abstraction." (Davis, An American Century of Photography, Hallmark Cards, 1999, p. 140.)
Another aerial view by Moholy-Nagy of a street in Rothenburg is in the collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles where it is dated 1926-28. (See In Focus: Laszló Moholy-Nagy, The J. Paul Getty Museum, 1995, pl. 26, p. 51.)