Xanti (Alexander) Schawinsky
Akt
1944
Vintage gelatin silver print. 19.3 x 19.1 cm (20.4 x 20.3 cm). Signed in pencil in the margin lower right, dated lower left. Signed, dated, titled and inscribed 'Unicat' in pencil, numbered in ball point pen on a label as well as annotated in an unknown hand in pencil on the verso. Unique. - Matted.
Schawinsky's photographic work in the USA is characterised by the continuing development of the experimental possibilities of alienation. Staring in the 1930s with photograms of abstract compositions in which he created optical structures with varying brightness values by superimposing grids, he returned to representational photography in the 1940s. However, Schawinsky alienated the figurative subject by placing a gird between the camera lens and the negative. “The grid allows the space to be experienced independently of the object in a density and structure to be determined solely by the photographer. The objects appear more distant, as if viewed through fog or a curtain.” (Quoted from: Ingrid Patzwahl, in: Johannes und Hedwig Döbele (ed.), Xanti Schawinski. Werke der Amerika-Zeit, exhib.cat. Galerie Döbele, Stuttgart, Stuttgart 1990, p. 18).
Introduction "From the Bauhaus to Black Mountain College - Photography from a Swiss Private Collection" see lot 631
Provenance
Estate of Xanti Schawinsky; private collection, Switzerland
Literature
Emilie Bertonati (ed.), Das experimentelle Photo in Deutschland, 1918-1940, Munich 1978, ill. p. 170 (this print); Hans Heinz Holz, Xanti Schawinsky. Bewegung im Raum. Bewegung des Raums, Zurich 1981, ill. p. 69 (mirrored variant); Michael Köhler/Gisela Barche (ed.), Das Aktfoto. Ansichten vom Körper im fotografischen Zeitalter. Ästhetik. Geschichte. Ideologie, exhib.cat. Münchner Stadtmuseum, Munich and Luzern 1985, ill. p. 77 (this print)