CRAACE researchers will be taking part in online conferences in April 2021.
On 15 April, CRAACE PI Matthew Rampley will present his paper ‘The Search for Spirit and the Late Writings of Max Dvořák’ at the conference The Influence of the Vienna School of Art History II, organised on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Max Dvořák’s death by the Institute of Art History, Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague.
A portrait of a man and a woman, overlapping in one image through the merging of two negatives. She, looking pensive and serious, he, excited and happy. Dissecting the images, thin white lines add an additional layer to the composition, splitting it into six uneven parts.
With all these different elements, which overlap and interrupt each other, and create a lively impression of two portraits, February’s Artwork of the Month is quite a playful image – despite its rather prescriptive title: Experiment with Two Negatives at the Bauhaus. Indeed, the photograph is one of the most experimental works by its author, the Slovak photographer Irena Blühová (1904–1991). It not only gives us a glimpse into student photography at the Bauhaus but also relates to less explored aspects of the school’s history – social photography and student activism – and the role in it of one of Slovakia’s best-known interwar photographers.
