Aurel Bauh

Romanian graphic artist and photographer Aurel Bauh began his artistic career in 1922–23 as a student of the Ukrainian artist and sculptor Aleksandr Archipenko, in Berlin. In 1924 he moved to Paris, where he studied at Fernand Léger’s Académie Moderne, where he would also exhibit his work. In 1929 he began experimenting with photography, focusing especially on Photogram, Solarization, and other darkroom techniques.

The following two years define his photographic pursuits. In 1930 Bauh made a series of photographs of the Ukrainian model Assia Granatouroff, who was a popular muse of Paris’s artists; in 1931, he worked in advertising photography. In 1936 his work was included in the International Exhibition of Contemporary Photography and published by the influential art publisher Arts et Métiers Graphiques in 28 études de nus (28 studies of nudes). From 1937–60 he lived in Bucharest, Romania, where he ran a photographic studio, documented the city, and exhibited his experimental works. In 1960 he returned to Paris, continuing his work in advertising and nude photography until his death in 1964.

Mitra Abbaspour, Associate Curator, Department of Photography, 2014