Light in the Work of Laszlo Moholy-Nagy [Volume: 7(1988), pp. 295-308]

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DIANE KIRKPATRICK
(paint). Full exploration of this would lead to a mastery or " 'light texture,'
the wide scale of gray between the black and white poles and the wide range
of color values... [which] are of profound significance for abstract experiments." The artist must master not only the physical "rules" of color
in light, but also the new technology that would permit true "light painting":
The next step is the conscious and general use of reflections, diffused
and transparent, solid and open shadow, mirroring, refraction with
prism, with grating and interference of light [taking into account]
other forerunners of a light-graphic; that is, floodlight, luminescence,
phosphorescence, ultraviolet, infrared, polarized light, cathode and
x-ray.
Moholy saw himself as one among what he hoped would be a veritable
creative army of experimenters. The need was for careful, intensive research
into the properties of the materials and of colored light itself:
In my pictures I have tried to follow the line of space-time articulation
by painting on waterclear, transparent plastics, introducing direct
light effects, mobile reflections and shadows, indicating a trend away
from the static pigmentation of surfaces toward a kinetic "light painting." The problem is only how to control these colored "light paintings" with the same precision as the painter of yesterday controlled
the effects of his pigments.
Moholy explored the potential of every new material he could find
for the new "light painting." He painted on a variety of grounds, exploiting
not only the reflective and transparent qualities of the various media, but
also the evanescent coloring of shadows cast by the compositions and the
mixing of colored light as transparent hues crossed one another:
Simultaneously with the sculptures made from metal and glass, I
turned toward the new industrial materials. I began to paint on aluminum, highly polished non-ferrous alloys, and on thermosetting and
thermoplastics. If I had not been afraid that these latter materials
were not permanent, I would never have painted on canvas again....
By producing real radiant light effects through transparent dyes on
plastic and other means, one has no need for translating light into
color by painting with pigment.
His techniques for modulating light included painting on reflective
metal and on layers of transparent plastic, piercing planes, bending plastic
sheets into space-forms, and designing three-dimensional pieces specially
to exploit the metamorphic possibilities of shifting light and shadow: