The Present Age
Moholy-Nagy and visual experiments in Texas
I’m giving a series of art talks in the high desert looking at what were, or are, bleeding edge ideas and technique.
The Present Age
Moholy-Nagy and visual experiments in Texas
There Goes Another Millennium
The year 2000 and Y2K images of the future
Truly Human Technology
Sculptures of light from MIT to Corpus Christi
Fantastic Border
Planned cities and structures that never happened
For The Present Age I mine the philosophy of artist and educator László Moholy-Nagy outlined in Vision In Motion. Moholy-Nagy was one of the first interwar artists to explore expansion of human perception and sensing as a result of scientific innovations such as the telescope, microscope, and radiography in the practice of art.
Against the backdrop of these very broad themes, and Moholy-Nagy’s extensive body of work, my presentation narrows focus to the downstream flourishing of early modern art in Texas after his visit to a women’s college in the small town of Denton, Texas in 1942. A meaningful inflection point and moment of unlocking creativity.
I trace the ideas and imprint of Moholy-Nagy and the start of the first studio art program in a Texas public university system, Texas State College for Women (TSCW). I’ll share some of his positions on art education, revealed not only in his work and texts but in archival letters to colleagues. My interpretation of this survey is a validation of the transformative power of the marriage of art, teaching, high technology, and humanistic concern. It is remarkable to notice the origin stories of early modern art in Texas made by women and draw the connections to bleeding edge technique, in contrast to what could generally be assumed to have arrived from purely decorative arts.
What a pleasure to share with a small group a little about Moholy-Nagy’s visit to Texas, here in Texas. It is not insignificant that the themes of expanded perception offer us a prompt to understand the expanding visual sensing occurring in our borderlands region via drones, telescopes, and satellite imaging as a result of technological innovation. In this way, noticing our current moment, The Present Age has a double reference: Moholy-Nagy was injured on the Russian Front in 1917, and, during convalescence, became involved with the journal Jelenkor ("The Present Age"). The invitation is to situate ourselves and these topics within the enduring systems of futures and frontiers.
Presentation is in person, salon style, at the office next to St James' on N 6th. Please share if you're so moved to.
