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Lerner, Nathan
(1913-1997)Eye in Mouth

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Fotografie des 19. – 21. Jahrhunderts (Katalog nur online verfügbar)
Auktionsdatum 4.12.2024

Eye in Mouth. 1939. Vintage ferrotyped gelatin silver print on thin ivory paper. 11 x 14 cm (13 x 17,5 cm). Signed, titled and dated by the photographer as well as number notations in pencil on the verso.

Nathan Lerner, born in Chicago in 1913 to Ukrainian immigrant parents, showed an early interest in art, attending painting courses at the Art Institute at the age of nine. By sixteen, he began using a camera to enhance his sense of composition. In 1935, Lerner embarked on a photo documentary project that would later become his renowned "Maxwell Street" series. Two years later, the renowned sculptor Archipenko recommended Lerner to the New Bauhaus school, where he studied under László Moholy-Nagy. Awarded a scholarship, Lerner was profoundly influenced by the school’s innovative atmosphere. During his time at the New Bauhaus, he conducted various artistic experiments, including luminous projections, cliché-verre, photographing through viscous substances, solarizations, and light drawings with pen. His most significant contribution was the invention of the light box, which revolutionized photography by enabling artists to create abstract studies of objects and light. – Some surface scratches and irregularities to ferrotype surface, a few light diagional indentation lines, traces of previous mounting on verso, otherwise in very good condition.

Provenance: Shalom Shpilman Collection