Hello Kevan
Thanks for the question.
Before we get onto the interesting part of the answer I should just
explain that there are different spellings out there on the net for
the artist and the names of his works. I've established that his name
was really Moholy-Nagy although it's often spelt the other way.
Although one website refers to a Light-Space Modulor, the others call
it a Light-Space Modulator.
I found this a helpful description of the work, although with
Moholy-Nagy nothing is entirely straightforward:
"Beginning in 1922 Moholy-Nagy designed and built a kinetic scultpure
or light machine. He collaborated with an engineer and a metalsmith.
It is a kinetic sculpture of rotating metal and glass that actually
worked. It represented a synthesis of his earlier experimentations
creating deep space superimpositions of light, shadow play,
relections, and movement...................
In 1930 Moholy-Nagy produced the Abstract film "Light Display, Black
and White and Grey". Moholy regarded the film as almost more important
than the sculpture itself. Regarded as an abstract ‘light chronology’.
Moholy’s friends photographed the sculpture on many occasions. The
photographs become an interpretation which is between sculpture and
film and suggests the effects seen in photograms."
It's accompanied by two different photos of the modulator:
http://carbon.cudenver.edu/~bneiman/desktop/moholy.htm
This photograph comes with an explanation of the modulator's potential
for use in the theater:
http://www.getty.edu/art/collections/objects/o51826.html
Pictures of the Bauhaus Museum's replica of the original are on a page
with plenty of description, for example:
" Moholy-Nagy himself described this kinetic sculpture, this
Gesamtkunstwerk composed of color, light, and movement, which appears
as a synthesis of his artistic ideas, as an 'apparatus for the
demonstration of the effects of light and movement'."
http://www.bauhaus.de/english/bauhaus1919/kunst/kunst_modulator.htm
OTHER PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE LIGHT-SPACE MODULATOR
There's a photo on an 'official' Moholy-Nagy website. You need flash
for this site and it's not easy to navigate. To get to the modulator,
you have to move your mouse over the circle in the center of the page
to "launch Bauhausbucher 15", then select 'galleries' , then
'sculpture'.
http://www.moholy-nagy.com/
You can see a detail from the modulator at:
http://www.abc.net.au/arts/digital/stories/s368114.htm
Another photograph calls it a light display machine, but the dates and
the appearance confirm it is the same work. (This page also has two
pictures of the 1940 Space Modulator.)
http://www.mw2mw.com/maholy-nagy/
There are various thumbnail pictures of Moholy-Nagy's work including
the Light- Space Modulator (click on it to enlarge it):
http://www.architetturamoderna.com/Moholy-Nagy/Moholy-Nagygalleria.asp
And a picture taken from an anthology here:
http://www.dayglow.ndirect.co.uk/work/mnsi/mnsi7.html
On this page it's in a section on International Constructivism and
Bauhaus:
http://www.mimieux.com/arthistory/mod/Mavant1.htm
There are two different views of it here (again you need to click on a
thumbnail-size picture):
http://www.bridgew.edu/depts/art/hausrath/fut/
And one more:
http://www.oza-berlin.de/sitesTeaching/teach_moholy2001.html
It's owned by the Harvard University Art Museum and illustrated in
this guide to their collection by Kirsten A. Mortimer:
"Harvard University Art Museums: A Guide to the Collections," NY:
Abbeville Press (1986) pg. 301
I found this information via the Smithsonian Inventories at:
http://www.siris.si.edu/webpac-bin/wgbroker?0930171403077716269+1+scan+select+1+0
MORE ON MOHOLY-NAGY AND THE MODULATOR
"Moholy-Nagy, László , 1895–1946, Hungarian painter, designer, and
experimental photographer......While living in Berlin he was one of
the founders of constructivism, experimenting with photograms and
translucent materials...... he experimented with a form of kinetic
art, which he called “light space modulators,” a stunning array of
motor-driven shapes that he illuminated to produce elaborate shadows
on the nearby walls. He worked in Berlin until 1934 as a typographer
and designer of stage sets. In 1937 he directed the Bauhaus School of
Design in Chicago until it failed (1938). Thereafter he opened the
Chicago Institute of Design, which he headed until his death. His
greatest contribution to modern art lay in his teaching, which deeply
influenced American commercial and industrial design..." from:
http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/people/A0833586.html
"The 'architecture of tomorrow will be a means of modifying present
conceptions of time and space. It will be a means of knowledge and a
means of action.' ....In other words, through architecture, the
individual can understand the world and, more importantly, change that
world.
This definition of the role of architecture can also be applied to
Moholy-Nagy's Light-Space Modulator - as, perhaps, to all his work -
that he used as a tool to explore new ways of inhabiting and
experiencing space and time. In passing, I would also suggest that
parallels could be drawn with Moholy-Nagy's teaching of the Foundation
Course, the Vorkurs, at the Bauhaus. The aim of the Vorkurs was "to
liberate the individual by breaking down conventional patterns of
thought in order to make way for personal experiences and discoveries
which will enable him to see his own potentialities and limitations."
from:
http://www.dayglow.ndirect.co.uk/work/mnsi/
I hope this is helpful. I doubt there are many images of the modulator
available online that I haven't already referred you to, but you
should be able to find more on Moholy-Nagy via this search:
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=moholy-nagy+light-space+modulator&btnG=Google+Search
Please let me know if you need any clarification.
Regards - Leli |
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