Ernest Ženko 
Modern Artist and his Space: László Moholy-Nagy 
1 Introduction 
The word »space« does not necessary have a strictly geometrical mean-
ing, i.e. it does not always represent the idea of an empty area. Space con-
sidered in isolation is an empty abstraction, but although in one sense this 
»substance« is hard to conceive of, it is also true that we cannot avoid its 
»existence«. 
Every period in human culture has developed a spatial conception. If 
we ignore geometry as a direct means for depicting space, one of the pow-
erful methods of explaining space is its articulation. On this basis it can be 
said that in contrast to »real« space, articulated space is a reality in our sen-
sory experience, i.e. a reality that can be grasped according to its own laws. 
In the light of these considerations the evolution and development of 
modern art can also be recognised in terms of articulated space. Moreover, 
each modernist artist has been desperately seeking his own vision of space 
articulation. 
Within this framework the Hungarian avant-garde artist László Moholy-
Nagy was one of the most versatile. He worked in several media and jo ined 
collaborative enterprises rather than being a specialist in just one. His space 
conception originated mainly through his use of new materials and construc-
tions introduced by the technological revolution. 
In this paper I intend to show how his concepts of space are linked with 
some major ideas of modern physical space and where and how those ideas 
are presented in some of his art-works. 
2 Modern Physical Space 
The physical concept of space (and of what is happening »inside it«) 
actually appeared in the first two decades of the 20th century, mostly through 
the ideas of Albert Einstein. So-called »modern« physical space differs a great 
deal f rom the concept developed by Isaac Newton in Philosophiae naturalis 
principia mathematica. In this monumental work Newton tried to show the very 
Filozofski vestnik, XX (2/1999 - XIVICA Supplement), pp. 279-200 191 
Ernest Zenko 
nature of movement as elegantly as he could; the movement that occurs in 
an empty space (the fact that movement requires space was already known 
to the Greek atomists). Nevertheless Newton's space has nothing to do with 
common sense - quite opposite: it is the identity of an absolute, true and 
mathematical entity; the absolute and infinite stage according to which all 
material bodies (or particles) are moving, and in which the forces between 
them are exerted.1 
The first difference between this mechanicist view and the contempo-
rary one is shown in the way that forces are described. In the first picture 
the forces are central, that is, the direction of the force always lies on a 
straight line between the centres of two material particles (which can be 
ei ther attracted or repelled) and are independent of particle velocities. All 
bodies around us are systems of such infinitely small particles, whereas those 
forces on the micro level can be simply summarized into the macro force 
of a rigid body (e.g. the gravitational force between Earth and Moon). 
In the modern picture, the situation is different. In the second half of 
the 19th century, new concepts appeared in connection with problems in 
unders tanding electric and magnetic phenomena . As Einstein put it: »In 
physics a new idea has risen, the most important thought after Newton: the 
field.«2 To determine the force radiating f rom a certain mass or charged 
particle, it is no t needed to know the location of all hypothetical bodies 
a round it. We fill empty space with force-lines that show the direction of the 
force (which is always perpendicular to each force-line) and also its strength 
(the density of the force-lines is proportional to the force strength). Not 
material particles or electrical charges, but the space between them is what 
it matters. 
The idea of the field helped physicists to solve the problems of elec-
tromagnetic and optic phenomena , and has led Einstein to formulate his 
Theory of relativity. There are actually two theories. The first, special? is based 
on the special relativistic principle: all coordinate systems, moving one upon 
another uniformly in a straight line, are equal.4 (This is equally suitable for 
1 We are dealing here with two different concepts of space, e. g. Newton's and Einstein's, 
but we should not forget that those two scientists were not alone. There were so 
many others who can't be even mentioned here, even though their ideas are of great 
importance for an understanding of nature and space. 
2 Albert Einstein, Leopold Infeld, Die Evolution der Physik von Newton bis zur Quantentheorie, 
Rowohlt, Hamburg 1956. (Slovenian transl., MK, Ljubljana 1961, p. 174.) 
3 Albert Einstein, Zur Elektrodynamik bewegter Körper, Ann. der Physik 17, 1905. 
4 The second theory, general relativity, deals with the problem of gravitation. Here Einstein 
finally left the realm of Euclidean geometry and turned to mathematical structures 
developed previously by Georg Riemann. (See: Albert Einstein, Die Grundlagen der 
allgemeinen Relativitätstheorie, Leipzig 1916.) This theory is not our concern now. 
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Modern Artist and his Space: Läszlö Moholy-Nagy 
the description of natural phenomena. ) This means that there can be no 
difference between events occurring in the same place (space) or at the same 
time, and others, because there is simply no such - absolute - space or time. 
The form of space that Einstein used in this case is actually a combina-
tion of space in time, named space-time. It is a structure, invented by Hermann 
Minkowski, in which physical events are defined by four dimensions (three 
spatial coordinates plus time). Time has been present in physics f rom Greek 
times onwards because it is impossible to imagine movement in space with-
out time. But in spite of that, this was the first instance, that time found its 
place within geometry. Space-time simply means that time has become a 
formally equal coordinate and that distances between (four-dimensional) 
events are measured in terms of space and time inseparably. 
We should ment ion another important and influential property of 
m o d e r n space that is no t directly linked with its geometrical meaning . 
Namely the kind of transparency of bodies, or better of matter occupying 
space. In 1895 Wilhelm Rontgen discovered X-rays that opened ano ther 
dimension of space - a space inside of solid bodies, where, in the classical 
picture, there should be no space at all. 
And yet another one: in 1911 Ernest Rutherford published his theory, 
inspired by previous experiments (the scattering of alpha particles on thin 
golden leaves). He introduced the concept of the atom that consists mostly 
of empty space. In this picture, a very small nucleus is positioned at the centre 
of an atom (ten thousand times smaller than the atom itself) with electrons 
moving around the nucleus in circles like planets around the sun. If a ma-
terial substance consists of such atoms, all the things around us are mostly 
made of empty space. 
Now we can try to find out how those modern ideas of space are con-
nected with conceptions developed by a modernist artist - Laszlo Moholy-
Nagy. Let us follow some of his ideas of space through his artistic life. 
3 Modern Artistic Space 
Laszlo Moholy-Nagy was born on 20 July 1895 in Bacsborsod, Hungary. 
When he was sent to secondary school in Szeged, he developed close rela-
tions with some poets and writers, which probably explains why his first in-
terest was in literature. After matriculation in 1913, he registered as a law 
student in Budapest. But it didn't last long - in 1914 he was called up in the 
army and sent to the front. In this quite specific situation he started to draw. 
His naturalistic figures of military life on postcards reveal his lack of educa-
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Ernest Zenko 
tion in drawing, but also his artistic talent. Wounded in 1917, he became even 
more serious about painting during his recuperation in Odessa. The young 
man who, until then, drew postcards as a mere pastime, was now depicting 
the tired, haggard faces of his fellow soldiers. It was there, in the military 
hospital that Moholy-Nagy matured into a real artist. 
After he re turned f rom the front he became increasingly attracted to 
Hungar ian Activists. Social ideas of this avant-garde movement left their 
impression on his entire work (e.g. the ideal of »synthetic« art - art in the 
service of society and conducive to man's external and internal liberation). 
After the fall of the Republic of Councils Moholy-Nagy left the country. First 
he went to Vienna and then in 1920 he finally settled in Berlin. 
3.1 Realistic Portraits 
During his period of wandering, Moholy-Nagy began to paint realistic 
portraits. These represent his own particular mode of expression even 
though he had not yet found his own individual style. His representational 
period was short but important for his future career, which led him to a more 
abstract mode of expression. 
The first discovery, which he regarded as his own, was that of line, and 
the result of this discovery was a series of portraits in which Moholy-Nagy 
sought not to copy other painters, but to understand them. Later he wrote in 
his autobiographical essay: »Through my 'problem' of expressing everything 
with lines I underwent an exciting experience, especially as I overemphasized 
the lines. In trying to express three-dimensionality, I used auxiliary lines in 
places where ordinarily no lines are used. The result was a complicated net-
work of a peculiar spatial quality, applicable to new problems. For example, I 
could express with such a network the spherical roundness of the sky, like the 
inside of a ball [...]. The drawings became a rhythmically articulated network 
of lines, showing not so much objects as my excitement about them.«5 
Moholy-Nagy was lost in the world of modern art and decided to return 
to the Renaissance, to the period of solid values. Thereaf ter he studied the 
drawings of Rembrandt and Van Gogh, where he realised that lines ought 
not to be mixed with half tones, and that: »[. . .] one should try to express a 
three-dimensional plastic quality by the unadulterated means of line; that 
the quality of a picture is not so much defined by the illusionistic render ing 
of nature as by the faithful use of the medium in new visual relations«.0 
5 Läszlö Moholy-Nagy, The New Vision: From Material to Architecture. Abstract of an Artist, 
Wittenborn, Schultz, New York 1947, in: Krisztina Passuth, Moholy-Nagy, Thames and 
Hudson, London 1985, p. 361. 
6 Ibid., p. 360. 
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Modern Artist and his Space: Läszlö Moholy-Nagy 
Objects are not those which carry the meaning, but the way in which 
the lines are organised and the relations between them. In the works of other 
artists - Lajos Tihayi, Edvard Munch, Oskar Kokoschka, Egon Schiele, and 
Franz Marz - he learned that they regarded nature only as the point of de-
parture. The real meaning lay in their interpretative power. Moholy-Nagy's 
understanding of this fact resulted at first in his realistic portraits. 
His free and energetic lines form complicated networks and they are 
not drawn to create only a decorative effect. These lines actually scan the 
surface of the model, the facial wrinkles - curls of the hair, wrinkles of the 
chin. The unders tanding of line that Moholy-Nagy adopted was the result 
of a rational analysis - the line appeared as the basic picture element. Lines 
that form and construct realistic portraits have become force lines, organ-
ised into a diagram of inner forces sharing the emotional charge. 
3.2 Glass Architecture 
In years 1920-21, al though still paint ing representat ional pictures, 
Moholy-Nagy was greatly concerned with achieving a more abstract mode 
of expression. Berlin was at that time an important avant-garde centre and 
influenced the young artist in various ways. The two basic influences were 
those of Berlin Dada and Constructivism, the particular a tmosphere of the 
big city - the industrial landscape, presence of machines, bridges, railway 
stations, etc. was also very important to him. The industrial civilisation that 
Moholy-Nagy met in Berlin offered new aesthetic ideals that differed f rom 
traditional ones. With the support of avant-garde trends, he adjusted to the 
new situation and started to explore. 
»On my walks I found scrap machine parts, screws, bolts, mechanical 
devices. I fastened, glued and nailed them wooden boards, combined with 
drawings and painting. It seemed to me that in this way I could produce real 
spatial articulation, frontally and in profile, as well as more intense colour 
effects. Light falling on the actual objects in the construction made the col-
ours appear more alive than any painted combination. I p lanned three-di-
mensional assemblages, constructions, executed in glass and metal. Flooded 
with light, I thought they would bring to the fore the most powerful colour 
harmonies. In trying to sketch this type of 'glass architecture', I hit upon the 
idea of transparency.«7 
Glass architecture appeared as an at tempt to paint real objects, seen or 
found on his wanderings through the land of technology. There he encoun-
tered three fundamental ideas that occupied him for the rest of his life: light, 
space and transparency. His paintings f rom the years 1920-21 reflect the 
7 Ibid., p. 362. 
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Ernest Zenko 
Picture 1: Glass Arhitecture III 
atmosphere of the big city: railways, bridges, and machines. He named them 
simply: Bridges, Large Railway Painting, The Great Wheel, and so on. Besides the 
dynamism of machines and the magical attraction of technology, Moholy-
Nagy also discovered the new laws of picture construction. 
In 1921 his paintings were concentric, expansive and tending outwards. 
They were mostly symmetric, with the centre of gravity in the middle plane. 
The importance of the central area was enhanced with the bare canvas. The 
brightly coloured, sharply outlined motif stands out against the impersonal 
light ochre texture of the canvas - it has almost nothing in common with 
the background. The composition is always centred, sometimes a strong 
horizontal axis lies in the lower or upper third of the picture. Upward-in-
clining diagonals float freely in the picture space, not extending as far as the 
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Modern Artist and his Space: Läszlö Moholy-Nagy 
frame, giving an impression of incompleteness, which is the source of inner 
tension and dynamism of the picture. 
Later, in 1921-22, the whole structure moved out of the horizontal , 
turned in relation to the lower f rame of the picture and aligned with the 
diagonals. With this change, the earlier balance was disturbed and the mo-
tifs, f reed f rom their horizontal attraction, started to soar into the space at 
their disposal on the surface of the canvas. Different geometrical forms were 
no longer impenetrable units but transparent elements through which other 
elements appeared. Through different layers, conveying picture elements, 
an almost infinite depth of the pictorial space appeared. (Picture 1; Glass 
Architecture III, 1921-22) 
The space of the picture had changed completely - the earlier plain 
canvas background, which contrasted sharply with the motifs, now became 
a vital c o m p o n e n t in the whole composit ion. The background (earlier: 
empty space) intermingled with motifs (earlier: elements of the picture), one 
appearing through the other. This was the birth of Glass Architecture, the 
artist's own pictorial world. 
In fact, glass architecture had two different meanings for Moholy-Nagy. 
On the one hand, it was a composition that was very close to the »pictorial« 
architecture (Bildarchitectur) of the Hungarian avant-garde, and on the other, 
an abstract symbol that was linked to the ideology of the Bauhaus at its out-
set. This ideology can be clearly recognised in »The Bauhaus Manifesto«, 
written by Gropius himself: »The ultimate aim of all creative activity is the 
building! [...] Architects, painters, sculptors, we must all re turn to crafts! [...] 
There is no essential difference between the artist and the craftsman. The 
artist is an exalted crafstman. [...] Let us therefore create a new guild of 
craftsmen without the class-distinctions that raise an arrogant barrier be-
tween craftsman and artist! Let us together desire, conceive and create the 
new building of the future, which will combine everything — architecture and 
sculpture and painting - in a single form which will one day rise towards the 
heavens f rom the hands of a million workers as the crystalline symbol of a 
new and coming faith.«8 
This is probably also the reason (or one of the reasons) why Walter 
Gropius invited Moholy-Nagy to teach in his school of design in Weimar. He 
started to teach there in April 1923 at the age of only 27. He replaced 
Johannes Itten in the Preliminary Course and Paul Klee in the Metal Work-
shop. This was the time when the school had just gone through one of its 
crises. T h e main p rob lem was the idealistic, romant ic a t t i tude of the 
8 Walter Gropius, »The Bauhaus Manifesto« in Frank Whitford, Bauhaus, Thames and 
Hudson, London 1995, p. 202. 
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Ernest Zenko 
Bauhaus. Vilmos Huszar wrote in September 1922: »Where is there any at-
tempt to unify several disciplines, at the unified combination of space, form 
and colour? Pictures, nothing but pictures [...].«'' 
Moholy-Nagy's appointment provided clear evidence that Gropius had 
changed his mind about the kind of institution Bauhaus ought to be. He an-
nounced this in a public lecture during the Bauhaus exhibition in 1923 on 
the theme »Art and technology, a new unity«. If in the early years the em-
phasis was placed on the investigation of properties common to all the arts 
and on the revival of craftsmanship, it had now shifted towards the educa-
tion of a new designer capable of conceiving artefacts to be made by ma-
chine. And if other teachers like Wassily Kandinsky wanted nothing to do 
with it, for Moholy-Nagy the machine was a kind of fetish. 
Moholy-Nagy was a brilliant teacher, and his abilities may have caused 
resentment among those colleagues whose relationship with the students was 
problematic. But what really was a problem for most of the other Bauhaus 
teachers was Moholy-Nagy's rejection of everything irrational. They were con-
vinced to some degree that art is a spiritual revelation. In Klee's words: art's 
purpose was to »render the invisible visible«. Moholy-Nagy's ideas were quite 
d i f ferent . He once said to Lothar Schreyer (who was ano the r Bauhaus 
teacher): »You surely don ' t believe the old fairy-story about the human soul? 
What is known as the soul is nothing but a function of the human body.«10 
During his Bauhaus period, Moholy-Nagy collaborated with Oskar 
Schlemmer and others on murals, ballet and stage designs; besides paint-
ing he was engaged in photography, film and photograms, light and colour 
experiments, but he also worked in typography and layout. His ideas were 
close to that of Gropius and together they planned, edited and designed the 
four teen Bauhausbiicher - Bauhaus books which were an at tempt to define 
avant-garde views. 
3.3 Light-Space Modulator 
Moholy-Nagy left Bauhaus in 1928, following Gropius's example. Two 
years later, Moholy-Nagy finished his masterpiece, The Light-Space Modulator 
(Picture 2), which represents most of the ideas he developed there. »The 
Lichtrequisit (later often referred to in English as the Light Prop or Light Dis-
play Machine) is one of the finest and most clearly expressed creations not 
only of Moholy-Nagy's individual artistic aspirations, but of avant-garde new 
aesthetics of the entire period.«11 He started to work on the idea in 1922 and 
it took eight years for technology to be able to follow the imagination. 
9 Cited in Frank Whitford, Bauhaus, p. 116. 
10 Ibid., p. 127. 
11 Krisztina Passuth, Moholy-Nagy, p. 53. 
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Modern Artist and his Space: Läszlö Moholy-Nagy 
Picture 1: The Light-Space Modulator 
Machine a r t was a t endency typical of the Dada m o v e m e n t a n d 
Constructivism. Various kinds of work appeared at that time, including Naum 
Gabo's Kinetic Statue: Standing Wave and Moholy-Nagy's own achievement: 
Nickel Sculpture. They are both real machines only partially, in the details, 
whereas The Light-Space Modulator is something different: a real machine metal 
and glass structure rotating and moving in space. 
The basis of the composition is a rotating disc with three metal frames 
whose edges meet. The oblique glass spiral placed on the disc traverses an 
inclined glass plate. Three metal screens with oblique axes and of different 
patterns, as well as two half perforated metal discs, are also in contact with 
a lower, rotating disc. When the spiral is set in motion by an electric motor, 
light is projected on the structure. The light passes through the metal screens 
287 
Ernest Zenko 
whose position, owing to the rotating movement, is constantly changing. The 
result is the silhouette projected at a distance of two or three metres. 
In h i s r e m a r k s M o h o l y - N a g y w r o t e a b o u t h i s s c u l p t u r e : » L i g h t b e a m s 
o v e r l a p as t hey c ross t h r o u g h d e n s e air ; t h e y ' r e b l o c k e d , d i f f r a c t e d , c o n -
d e n s e d . T h e d i f f e r e n t a n g l e s of e n t e r i n g l i gh t i n d i c a t e t ime . T h e r o t a t i o n 
o f l i gh t f r o m eas t to wes t m o d u l a t e s t h e visible wor lds . S h a d o w s a n d r e f l e x e s 
r e g i s t e r a c o n s t a n t l y c h a n g i n g r e l a t i o n s h i p of so l ids a n d p e r f o r a t i o n s . « 1 2 
The Light-Space Modulator embodies the idea of the beautiful machine, 
bu t it is at the same time (in a broader context) connected with Bauhaus 
and mostly with its theatrical experiments. The machine was also the em-
bodiment of the Constructivist ideal and Russian Constructivists p lanned 
several such works - Vladimir Tatlin's Monument of the Illrd International is 
regarded as the symbol of the Utopia of the entire period, and Naum Gabo's 
Plan of a Radio Station remained a dream. In 1922 Moholy-Nagy published 
an article together with Alfred Kemeny: »Constructivism means the activa-
tion of space by means of a dynamic-constructive system offerees within one 
another that are actually under tension in physical space, and their construc-
tion within space, also active as force (tensions).«13 
Moholy-Nagy m a n a g e d to real ise his p l a n a n d his w o r k b e c a m e a m o b i l e , 
spat ia l v a r i a n t of glass a r c h i t e c t u r e . H e m a d e use of t h e s a m e g e o m e t r i c a l fig-
u r e s as i n his pa in t i ngs , wi th a p p r o x i m a t e l y t h e s a m e p r o p o r t i o n a n d distr i-
b u t i o n . I n his p i c t u r e s h e s o m e t i m e s t r i ed to m o d u l a t e l igh t by s a t u r a t i n g t h e 
s u r f a c e a n d u s i n g glass o r a l u m i n i u m in s t ead of canvas . W i t h t h e Light-Space 
Modulator he c o u l d m o d u l a t e t h e b e a m of l igh t in actual i ty; t h e r e su l t was a 
m o b i l e p a i n t i n g t h a t s t a r t e d to insp i re t h e art is t h imse l f . H e a d a p t e d it f o r t h e 
s t age as » l ight p r o p for a n e lec t r ic s tage« a n d h e even m a d e a b lack a n d w h i t e 
film in w h i c h t h e rea l s u b j e c t is t h e b i r t h of t h e Light-Space Modulator. 
4 Conclusion 
D e a l i n g wi th m o d e r n i s m , t h e r e is a q u e s t i o n of w h e t h e r o n e c a n find 
a n y d i r e c t c o n n e c t i o n b e t w e e n n o t i o n s d e r i v e d f r o m s e p a r a t e d s p h e r e s of 
h u m a n activity (l ike s c i e n c e a n d ar t ) . 1 4 I d e a s s e e m to r e m a i n s e p a r a t e d e v e n 
12 Cited in Richard Kostelanetz, Moholy-Nagy, Allen Lane, London 1974, p. 160. 
13 Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Alfred Kemeny, »The Dynamic-Constructive System of Forces«, 
DerSturm, No. 12/1922; cited in Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Vision in Motion, Paul Theobald, 
Chicago 1965, p. 238. 
14 One of the ideas I wanted to show is the difference between the field of science and 
the field of art, concerning the development of a concept or notion and personal 
288 
Modern Artist and his Space: Läszlö Moholy-Nagy 
if we find them in both spheres and even if they have the same names. One 
such example is the idea of space-time. We have already mentioned what this 
idea means in physics. Even though Moholy-Nagy was fully aware of this, for 
him space-time had a different meaning. 
He wrote in his last book, published after his death in 1946:15 »Since 
'space-time' may be a misleading term, it especially has to be emphasized 
that space-time problems in the arts are not necessarily based upon Einstein's 
theory of relativity.« He continued with the explanation: »Einstein's termi-
nology of 'space-time' and 'relativity' has been absorbed by our daily lan-
guage. Whether we use the terms 'space-time', 'motion and speed' , or 'vi-
sion in motion', rightly or wrongly, they designate a new dynamic and kinetic 
existence freed f rom the static, fixed framework of the past. Space-time is 
not only a matter of natural science or of an aesthetic and emotional inter-
est. It deeply modifies the character of social ends, even beyond the sense 
that pure science may lead to a better application of our resources.«16 
His own artistic achievements, ment ioned in this paper, can be consid-
ered as the development of the same idea - namely the idea of space-time. 
In Moholy-Nagy's realistic portraits, the dynamism of the pictorial space is 
included in the force-lines forming an emotional field that corresponds to 
that of a physical force field. In his glass architecture, the artist forcefully 
expressed the ideas of transparency and light, and the new vision of space, 
which is very similar to the new physical ideas of the modern time. In the 
last example of Light-Space Modulator, he constructed a machine that finally 
embodies the concept of modern physical space and time. His explanation 
and his works of art can be considered an example of how concepts f rom 
different spheres - like that of space - can be understood. 
development of the artist or scientist (researcher). In the first case, that of science, it 
is more common to follow the development of an idea and to fill in personal 
achievements, while in the second case, when dealing with art, it seems more 
reasonable to follow the life line of an individual artist and to fill in the ideas. The 
consequence of this idea is also the form of the text. 
13 After he left Bauhaus in 1928, Moholy-Nagy started to wander around Europe looking 
for a new teachingjob. In the meantime, he was painting on synthetic materials and 
transparencies (Plexiglas), experimenting with colour film, design, photograph and 
so on. In 1937 he was offered and accepted the directorship of the New Bauhaus in 
Chicago, but the school was forced to close down before the end of the year, so he 
opened his own School of Design the following year. Moholy-Nagy died of leukemia 
in Chicago on 24 November, 1946. At the time of his death he was President of the 
Institute of Design, then having 680 students. 
16 Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Vision in Motion, p. 266. 
289