Brick Walls
André Kertész
Description
Recent Acquisitions: Curators Choice Part I, November 12, 2011-March 18, 2012
André Kertész
United States, born Hungary, 1894–1985
Brick Walls
1973
Gelatin silver print
Gift of Larry and Maxine Snider
Subject Matter:
A sea of bricks fills the frame of this photograph, displaying Kertész's lifelong interest in the ways that the photographer's viewpoint, cropping choices, and perspective could transform the everyday world into abstract patterns or produce surprising formal relationships. Here, as the title suggests, Kertész concentrated on the façades of buildings, photographing their walls straight on to reduce the appearance of three-dimensionality, and eliminating extraneous details that identify the urban environment or its inhabitants. The effect is simultaneously minimalist and decorative, as the eye travels rythmically over the rectangular forms of bricks, windows, walls, doorways, and shadows. Kertész heightened the graphic qualities of the image by unfocusing his lens, such that the lines of the building in the background, in particular, look like little more than pencil marks.
Physical Description:
Photograph of a group of brick buildings, cropped to accentuate the building materials and other geometric details such as a window and door.
Usage Rights:
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