Getty Museum
Mein Name ist Hase
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
> Although László Moholy-Nagy’s montages are never as directly political as those of his Dadaist compatriots, such as John Heartfield or Hanna Höch, his work is often infused with social criticism. In this piece, an individual masked in whiteface shrugs obliviously while three figures struggle precariously overhead on high wires. The dance historian Frank-Manuel Peter has identified the anguished figure at the far left as Valeska Gert, performing her dance piece *Nervousness.* The German expression *Mein Name ist Hase, ich weiss von nichts* (My name is rabbit, I now nothing) indicates silent complicity, the keeping of a confidence or secret. In this context, Moholy’s use of the phrase seems to comment on those who witness the problems around them but do not speak out against them. > > Katherine Ware, *László Moholy-Nagy*, In Focus: Photographs from the J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1995), 58. © 1995 The J. Paul Getty Museum.
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