Laszlo Moholy-Nagy: Abstracting from Reality

story © Michael Betancourt | published February 20, 2011 | permalink |  |  

An Excerpt from a current writing project-in-progress:

Laszlo Moholy-Nagy (1895 – 1946) spent an extended portion of his book Painting, Photography, Film concerned with issues of the “absolute film” following his initial observations about the importance of Viking Eggeling’s work. His focus was on the ability to create an abstract work where light and movement appear on screen separated from the confines of theatrical, literary cinema: he called these works light-space articulation; an idea he developed initially in the form of the Light-Space Modulator, a kinetic sculpture produced in collaboration with Stefan Seboek at the Bauhaus in Berlin. This work was in development for most of the 1920s, an on-going project of Moholy-Nagy’s from 1922 when he created the first version until his final version done in 1930. It is this last version that appears in Ein Lichtspiel schwarz weiss grau (1930).

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story © Michael Betancourt | published February 12, 2011 | permalink |  |  

an exhibition of paintings by JOSÉ PARLÁ
MARCH 3 - APRIL 16, 2011
OPENING RECEPTION: THURSDAY, MARCH 3, 6 - 9 PM

Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery will be shoing a solo exhibition of the Brooklyn-based artist José Parlá. Walls, Diaries, and Paintings features fifteen new paintings, that chronicle Parlá’s exploration of the diverse places and cultures he has traversed. From Istanbul to Havana, from Tokyo to New York, the colors and textures of the neighborhoods and alleyways have found a forceful and moving resolution in Parlá’s works that are both inspirational and revealing.

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story © Michael Betancourt | published January 22, 2011 | permalink |  |  

I wrote a chapter in this book: José Parlá: Walls, Diaries, and Paintings. It's available for pre-order on the publisher's website, and is slated to ship in February 2011.

story © Michael Betancourt | published January 20, 2011 | permalink |  |  

Here's a thought on why academics should be dreading the rise of the e-reader as textbook and reference work. It's really obvious, but I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere yet. Maybe academics just haven't tried using their readers for research yet....

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story © Michael Betancourt | published January 19, 2011 | permalink |  |  

As of January 15, Museum of the Moving Image has reopened after a major expansion and renovation of its building. They're starting off in their new building with a series of rarely-seen avant-garde films.

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