The UWM Archives has loaned four rare photographs by pioneer modernist László Moholy-Nagy to the Milwaukee Art Museum (MAM) for inclusion in the exhibit “The Bauhaus, László Moholy-Nagy, and Milwaukee.”
The photographs are part of The Little Review collection, an extensive archive comprising the records of the important modernist literary and art magazine’s 15-year existence (1914-1929).
The magazine was known for its publication of works by such modernist authors and artists as James Joyce, Djuna Barnes, Andre Breton, T.S. Eliot, William Carlos Williams, Sophie Tauber-Arp, Francis Picabia, and Man Ray.
About their exhibit, MAM writes:
“On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Bauhaus (1919–1933), the innovative art, architecture, and design school in Germany, the display in this gallery highlights one of its key figures: artist, designer, and theorist László Moholy-Nagy. . . .The Milwaukee Art Institute (1916–1957), a Milwaukee Art Museum predecessor, not only hosted the first traveling exhibition of Moholy-Nagy’s photographs in the United States in 1931, but also presented the first U.S. exhibition about the Bauhaus, organized by the Museum of Modern Art, in 1939.”
“The Bauhaus, László Moholy-Nagy, and Milwaukee” opened August 9, 2019; the UWM Libraries’ photographs were rotated into the exhibit in January. The show closes June 7, 2020.