Herbert Bayer
Stable Wall

Artist Herbert Bayer (American, born Austria, 1900–1985)American, born Austria, 1900–1985

CultureAmerican

Titles

Stable Wall

Date1936

MediumGelatin silver print

DimensionsImage: 11 1/4 × 15 1/2 in. (28.6 × 39.4 cm)
Sheet: 15 9/16 × 19 9/16 in. (39.6 × 49.7 cm)
Mount: 15 5/8 × 19 5/8 in. (39.7 × 49.8 cm)

Credit LineGift of Manfred Heiting, the Manfred Heiting Collection

Object number2002.632

Not on view

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Department

Photography

Special Collections

Manfred Heiting Collection of Photography

Object Type

PHOTOGRAPHS

DescriptionWith
a bold imagination and open curiosity, Herbert Bayer worked in nearly every
artistic medium—painting, sculpture, photography, graphic design, architecture,
and typography. His wide-ranging interests, nurtured in the famous Bauhaus
school, united in a series he titled fotoplastiken. These multimedia
assemblages were constructed and then photographed by the artist to create
works with a surreal character. For Stable Wall, Bayer photographed his
hand-made objects and calligraphic ropes against a two-dimensional print of a
cedar-shake wall. The odd flatness, strange relationship of size, and peculiar
mix of objects hint that this scene is not what it may appear to be. Bayer’s fotoplastiken
both records and tests reality.
Provenance Research Ongoing Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks

Signed in pencil, recto of print, bottom right corner over image: bayer
Inscribed in pencil, verso of mount, upper left: bayer 1936 fotoplastik wall with shingles // (printed 1936) vintage
Inscribed in pencil, verso of mount, bottom left corner: HB-2/29-3
Stamped in black ink, verso of mount, bottom right corner: foto herbert bayer

Signed in pencil, recto of print, bottom right corner over image: bayer

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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