© Estate of György Kepes

Currently not on view

Juliet's Shadow Caged,

1938

György Kepes, 1906–2001; born Selyp, Hungary; died Cambridge, MA
x1993-145
Hungarian-born photographer György Kepes made this image shortly after arriving in the United States in 1937 to direct a workshop at the New Bauhaus, founded by photographer László Moholy-Nagy in Chicago. Kepes’s wife, Juliet, was a frequent subject in the artist’s work; here she holds a picture frame that casts a shadow across her face. Kepes experimented with several exposure techniques, including negative printing (in which light and dark are reversed, as in this print) and solarization (exposing the photograph to light during printing, as in the example illustrated at left), to create different versions of this image. Here the processing of the print flattens Juliet’s visage into a play of light and shadow.

Information

Title
Juliet's Shadow Caged
Dates

1938

Maker

György Kepes

Medium
Gelatin silver print
Dimensions
31.8 x 24.1 cm (12 1/2 x 9 1/2 in.)
Credit Line
Museum purchase, anonymous gift
Object Number
x1993-145
Place Made

North America, United States

Inscription
Signed and dated in graphitel, verso lower right corner: Gyorgy Kepes / 1938
Culture
American
Type
black-and-white photographs, photographs
Techniques
gelatin silver process
Subject
portraits, heads, women, figures (representations), gelatin silver prints

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