Getty Museum
Raub der Sabinerin
Creator
László Moholy-NagyAmerican Photographer · 1895–1946
All works by this person →> The reality of our century is technology: the invention, construction and maintenance of machines. To be a user of machines is to be of the spirit of this century. Machines have replaced the transcendental spiritualism of past eras. > > --László Moholy-Nagy > > Perhaps more than any other artist in the Getty Museum collection, László Moholy-Nagy would have delighted in the presentation of his im
More on Getty ULAN- Date
- 1927
- Medium
- Gelatin silver print
- Culture
- American
- Department
- Photographs
- Institution
- Getty Museum
> The dynamic tension between two groups of figures—László Moholy-Nagy’s interpretation of the story of the rape of the Sabine women—is the focus of this piece. While the statuesque flapper dances with her nearly invisible partner, a group of strongmen struggle to fell her in a tug of war. Women’s rights became an increasingly polarized issue in postwar Germany, pitting the “new woman” against the traditional wife and mother. At a time of concern over repopulating the decimated country, women’s increased sexual freedom was viewed with anxiety. Rising unemployment—particularly in industry—fueled a backlash against female employees, and families in which both the husband and wife worked outside the home were subject to criticism. Moholy’s Sabine appears to be able to take care of herself, however. > > Katherine Ware, *László Moholy-Nagy*, In Focus: Photographs from the J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1995), 54. © 1995 The J. Paul Getty Museum.
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