Getty Museum

Die Eigenbrötler

Date

1927

Medium

Gelatin silver print

Culture

American

Department

Photographs

Institution

Getty Museum

> At first glance this piece and *The Eccentrics II* ([84.XM.997.14](http://www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/46598/laszlo-moholy-nagy-die-eigenbrotler-ii-american-1927/)) are quite different, but they are linked by their dark, menacing character. In both pictures, humans are shown as vulnerable beings under threat by outside forces. The titles suggest the outcast status that many artists were beginning to feel in the increasingly intolerant political climate of Germany. The three cylindrical enclosures in *The Eccentrics III* echo the three windows in *The Eccentrics II* but offer no refuge for their inhabitants. One figure is flayed, standing exposed and threatened by a woman with a rifle. Above him, a man takes aim with a pool cue at an unsuspecting huddle of athletes. These actions are apparently sanctioned by the military official who presides over the composition. > > In *The Eccentrics II,* ferocious if commonplace animals attack a tall structure whose occupants are protected by bars. Jeannine Fiedler has suggested that the building may represent the Bauhaus Prellerhaus, with its playing field in front. It is perhaps not too far-fetched a notion, given mounting political pressures, that the photograph may express a sense of being under siege. It is hard to judge whether the three figures on the playing field are coming to the rescue, joining the attack, or fleeing; perhaps they simply contribute to an overall sense of urgency. > > Adapted from Katherine Ware, *László Moholy-Nagy*, In Focus: Photographs from the J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1995), 60. © 1995 The J. Paul Getty Museum.

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