Event 5: Trip to LACMA (Extra Credit)

Friday, June 9, 2017

For the fifth event, I decided to go to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. I found myself looking at the artwork called Vertical Black, Red, Blue created by Hungarian artist, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy. Moholy-Nagy's believed that art could be expressed using newer technology such as the camera. His interest in photography led him to create works that gave way to a newer understanding/perspective of art, claiming that artists before were dependent on the tools of perspective drawing, but with the advent of new technologies, they were given a new perspective.

Moholy-Nagy's Vertical Black, Red,
Blue relates the relationship of
technology with art.

Another view of Moholy-Nagy's artwork.

Vertical Black, Red, Blue is an artwork that was created through the use of plexiglas, an industrial material. In this artwork, Moholy-Nagy purposely created this piece so that when illuminated through the front, the black, red, and blue were seen more prominently, whereas, if illuminated through the back, it would highlight the incisions he added. By creating this change, he allowed viewers to see two pieces or perspectives in one sculpture. In this way, by giving more than one perspective, he leaves it up to the viewers to create their own sense of what the art is by giving them an alternative to look upon.

Through the use of just shapes,
Moholy-Nagy shows regardless of what material
one uses, art can be produced.

Through the use of circles,
Moholy-Nagy produces his own idea of
space.

 As I thought about the mechanics and how the artist had went about creating this, I had the initial belief that this man must have had a solid understanding of the basics of light and math in order to create the masterpiece that this artwork is. As I looked around at Moholy's other works of art, I noticed that many of them were made with basic shapes such as circles and rectangles. In one work, just by using circles and lines, he created his own picture of space. I can relate these works back to Judith Hopf's works, located in the Hammer Museum. Similar to Hopf, Moholy used very simple pieces to create his work, emphasizing the idea that art can be created using any type of material. His works, by incorporating the sciences of light theory and space, further emphasize C.P. Snow's claim that the two cultures of art and science will eventually form a relationship and create a third culture. As technology further progresses, I believe that the relationship between artists and scientists will continue to grow, resulting in artworks similar to Moholy-Nagy's and make more noticeable, the relationship of the two.