The World of Maholey-Nagey at the Guggenheim

 This weekend, I went to the Guggenheim to see Laszlo Maholey-Nagy's work. He uses several mediums to make his art, which shows a progression of his works throughout the course of his artistic career. For his drawing created in 1918 (title unknown), he uses black crayon as pictured …. To make curved and intertwined black lines. This piece, among several others comprised of Maholy-Nagey’s drawings on military-issue postcard, which illustrated his time in World War I. These works were his earliest and demonstrate his lack of formal artistic training as well as his expressive abilities.

            With his painting, “Circle Segments” made in 1921, Maholy-Nagey uses tempera on canvas. However, in the drawing pictured above, Maholy-Nagey uses crayon on paper. Similar to his earliest works, he expresses himself through abstract geometric shapes, as seen in both the drawing and this painting. His artistic progression is evident with his use of paints and color.

            In 1946, Maholey-Nagy made his Plexiglas sculpture, “Leda and the Swan.” With this piece, he is using another medium. Even though Plexiglas is a new medium, Maholey-Nagy still makes his art with geometric shapes.

            Maholey-Nagy believed in the potential of art as a vehicle for social change. A large portion of modern art is conceptual. If you look at my blog on the art in Bryant Park, I discuss the globes. The globes in Bryant Park are conceptual, as they are not literal presentations of the world, but rather reflect the problems of society in an artistic way. In other words, the globe exhibit illuminates the concept of global warming through art. Maholey-Nagy revamps the concept of art itself. He merges art with various innovations, such as his usage of Plexiglas in his sculpture of “Leda and the Swan.” His abstract works have influenced the role of the artist in today’s society.

            Kandinsky and Maholey-Nagy’s pieces relate because of their geometric abstraction. Kandinsky’s painting, “Small Pleasures” (1913) involves abstract depictions of reality. Similarly, Maholey-Nagy uses abstract geometric shapes in his Plexiglas piece, “CH 4” (1941). 

 

I recommend that you go to the Guggenheim to look at the wonderful art of not only Maholey-Nagy and Kandinsky, but also other works in the shows, “But a Storm Is Blowing from Paradise: Contemporary Art of the Middle East and North Africa” and the work in the Thanhauser Gallery.