Xanti (Alexander) Schawinsky Lot n° 643

Xanti (Alexander) Schawinsky Nude 1944 Vintage, gelatin silver print. 19,3 x 19,1 cm (20,4 x 20,3 cm). Signed in pencil in the lower right margin of the image, dated on the left. Signed, dated, titled and inscribed 'Unicat' in pencil on the reverse, with adhesive label, there numbered in ballpoint pen, and inscribed in pencil by another hand. One of a kind. - Mounted under passepartout. Provenance Estate of Xanti Schawinsky; private collection, Switzerland Literature Emilie Bertonati (ed.), Das experimentelle Photo in Deutschland, 1918-1940, Munich 1978, p. 170 with ill. (this print); Hans Heinz Holz, Xanti Schawinsky. Bewegung im Raum. Bewegung des Raums, Zurich 1981, p. 69 with ill. (mirrored variant); Michael Köhler/Gisela Barche (eds.), Das Aktfoto. Views of the Body in the Photographic Age. Aesthetics. History. Ideologie, Ausst.kat. Münchner Stadtmuseum, Munich and Lucerne 1985, p. 77 with illustration (this print) Schawinsky's photographic work in the USA is characterized by the continuous development of the experimental possibilities of alienation. Starting in the 1930s with photograms of abstract compositions in which he created optical structures with different brightness values by superimposing grids, he turned back to representational photography in the 1940s. However, Schawinsky alienated the figurative subjects by placing a grid between the camera lens and the negative. "The grid allows the space to be experienced independently of the object in a density and structure to be determined solely by the photographer. The objects appear more distant, as if viewed through fog or a curtain." (quoted from Ingrid Patzwahl, in: Johannes and Hedwig Döbele (eds.), Xanti Schawinski. Werke der Amerika-Zeit, Ausst.kat. Galerie Döbele, Stuttgart, Stuttgart 1990, p. 18). Introduction "From Bauhaus to Black Mountain College - Photographs from a Swiss Private Collection" see lot 631.