Lafayette, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute
1961
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
gelatin silver print
Dimensions
sheet (trimmed to image): 11.5 x 16.1 cm (4 1/2 x 6 5/16 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of The André and Elizabeth Kertész Foundation
Accession Number
1998.90.6
Art Historical Context
Visitors to the National Gallery of Art are invited to explore *Lafayette, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute* (1961), a intimate gelatin silver print by André Kertész. This Hungarian-born photographer (1894–1985), a pioneer of modernist photography, masterfully captured everyday scenes with poetic simplicity during his decades in Paris and New York. By 1961, late in his career, Kertész continued his signature style of finding beauty in the ordinary, often through innovative angles and light play, as seen in this small-scale work (11.5 x 16.1 cm). The title references the Munson-Williams-Proct...
About the Artist
André Kertész
André Kertész, born Andor Kertész on July 2, 1894, in Budapest, Hungary, to a middle-class Jewish family, initially pursued a conventional path as a clerk at the Budapest Stock Exchange after graduating from the Academy of Commerce in 1912. Self-taught in photography after purchasing his first camera that year, he captured his early poetic visions of Hungarian landscapes and peasant life, includin...