Moholy-Nagy, László

(born July 20, 1895, Bacsbarsod, Hung.—died Nov. 24, 1946, Chicago, Ill., U.S.) Hungarian painter, photographer, and art teacher. After studying law in Budapest, he went to Berlin in 1919, and in 1923 he took charge of the metal workshop of the Bauhaus as well as the Bauhausbook series of publications. As a painter and photographer he worked predominantly with light. His “photograms” were composed directly on film, and his “light modulators” (oil paintings on transparent or polished surfaces) included mobile light effects. As an educator, he developed a widely accepted curriculum to develop students' natural visual gifts instead of specialized skills. Fleeing Nazi Germany in 1935, he went to London and then to Chicago, where he organized and headed the New Bauhaus.

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