The Architecture Film Festival London, in its 2021 edition, addresses a variety of topics related to contemporary architecture. Special film events include the UK premiere of The New Bauhaus (2019, dir. Alysa Nahmias), a film dedicated to the vibrant life and legacy of the artist László Moholy-Nagy.
The 1930s were a pivotal decade for British avantgarde architecture. Despite the relative paucity of modernist buildings being commissioned, by 1937 the country had, for a brief moment, become the epicentre of progressive contemporary architecture in Europe.
The Hungarian artist László Moholy-Nagy was one of the most influential thinkers, designers and art educators of the first half of the twentieth century. His experimentation with light, space and form generated international attention. Among those impressed by Moholy-Nagy's work was Walter Gropius, German architect and founder of the Bauhaus School, who made Moholy-Nagy one of the youngest instructors in the history of the Bauhaus. In his time at the Bauhaus, Moholy-Nagy utilized multi-disciplinary art practices to revolutionize abstract artistic media.
But who was the man?