EM 3 (Telephone Picture)
László Moholy-Nagy
American, born Hungary. 1895–1946
1923
A small enamel-on-steel abstraction in which Moholy-Nagy reduces the idea of modern communication—suggested by the title “Telephone Picture”—to crisp vertical and horizontal bars, using industrial material to make painting feel like a machine-made sign.
A stark, smooth white field is punctured by a dense black vertical band at left and two precise plus-shaped crosses—one red/yellow low and partly overlapping the black, one yellow/black high and to the right—so that your eye jumps between weight and delicate color accents.
Made at the Bauhaus in 1923, it demonstrates Moholy-Nagy’s drive to unite art and industry by using porcelain enamel on steel to introduce mechanical clarity, reproducibility, and the visual language of modern technology into fine art.
Medium
Porcelain enamel on steel
Dimensions
9 1/2 x 6" (24 x 15 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of Philip Johnson in memory of Sibyl Moholy-Nagy
Accession
92.1971
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
