László Moholy-Nagy (July 20, 1895
– November 24, 1946) was a Hungarian painter and photographer and educator, who
was relentlessly experimental in pioneering work in painting, drawing,
photography, collage, sculpture, film, theater, and writing. Throughout his
career, he became proficient and innovative in the fields of photography,
typography, sculpture, painting, printmaking, film-making, and industrial
design, however, his main focuses was photography; starting in 1922, he had
been initially guided by the technical expertise of his first wife and
collaborator Lucia Moholy.
He coined the term Neues Sehen
(New Vision) for his belief that the camera could create a whole new way of
seeing the outside world that the human eye could not. This theory encapsulated
his approach to his art and teaching.
Moholy-Nagy was the first
interwar artist to suggest the use of scientific equipment such as the
telescope, microscope, and radiography in the making of art. He experimented
with the photogram; the process of exposing light-sensitive paper with objects
laid upon it. His teaching practice covered a diverse range of media, including
painting, sculpture, photography, photomontage, and metalworking.