Front / Recto

  • Title Untitled (Self-Portrait)
  • Negative Date 1931
  • Print Date 1931–35
  • Medium Gelatin silver print
  • Dimensions Image 9 7/16 × 7 1/16" (23.9 × 17.9 cm)
  • Place Taken Dessau
  • Credit Line Thomas Walther Collection. Gift of Thomas Walther
  • MoMA Accession Number 1842.2001
  • Copyright © 2015 Hajo Rose/ Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Germany
  • Description

    Trained first as graphic artist at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Koenigsberg, and introduced to photography only upon enrolling at the Bauhaus in October 1930, Hajo Rose applied his talents with both disciplines to generate this montage: the distinctive facade of the Bauhaus in Dessau circumscribed by a self-portrait. Photography was formally integrated into the Bauhaus curriculum with the appointment of Walter Peterhans in 1929, and this image may have been Rose’s response to a Peterhans assignment.

    [1] Rose created the work by exposing two negatives simultaneously onto a single sheet of photographic paper: one of these negatives features a close view of his face, lit slightly more strongly from his left, centered against a plain, bright, background; the other, upon close examination, describes the mostly transparent facade and grid structure of the workshop building, designed by Walter Gropius for the Bauhaus’s move from Weimar to Dessau in 1926. The light background of the first negative is key to the self-masking technique of this Double Exposure: the highlights become dense areas in the negative, thus blocking the second image in those areas during printing—a clever means to render the school visible only through the visage of a creative student.

    Rose carefully aligned his face with the dominant vertical axis of the facade, and the curtains and radiators visible through its windows reinforce that strict verticality. By contrast, the horizontal elements of the window frames (and the overall shape of the radiators) skew upwards, resulting in a dynamic composition that Rose, a graphic artist, was sure to have appreciated. Did Peterhans’s assignment perhaps require the juxtaposition of self and school, animate and inanimate, or solid and transparent forms? Like the curriculum at the Bauhaus, this image weaves together photography, graphic design, and architecture into a unique, instructive whole, suggesting the collective nature of the school and the inculcation of Constructivist ideals in the individuals that made up the student body.

    —Lee Ann Daffner, Sarah Hermanson Meister

    [1] The “Hajo Rose” research file compiled by Simon Beiling for the Thomas Walther Collection project  includes references to photographs by Bauhaus students Lotte Beese and Kurt Kranz that similarly layer the architecture of the Bauhaus against close views of faces. Beiling also notes that the Kranz print is inscribed “Studie aus Foto-Abteilung” (Study from the photography department), further supporting the possibility that these were all responses to an assignment. Department of Photography, The Museum of Modern Art.

Back / Verso

  • Mount Type No mount
  • Marks and Inscriptions Signed in pencil on sheet verso, top left: Hajo Rose/1931. Inscribed in pencil on sheet verso, center: freist 27,4 hoch. Inscribed in pencil on sheet verso, bottom left: RK 14683–1UT1. Inscribed in pencil on sheet verso, bottom right: 102%.
  • Provenance The artist, Leipzig; purchased by Egidio Marzona, Berlin/Bielefeld, 1978 [1]; purchased by Galerie Rudolf Kicken, Cologne, August 1988 [2]; purchased by Thomas Walther, June 25, 1997 [3]; given to The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2001.
    [1] Egidio Marzona, conversation with Thomas Walther, Berlin, April 2014.
    [2] MacGill/Walther 2001(4), p. 12; and Rudolf Kicken, conversation with Simon Bieling, Kicken Berlin, February 17, 2004.
    [3] MacGill/Walther 2001(4), p. 12; MacGill/Walther 2000(2), p. 37; and Galerie Rudolf Kicken invoice no. 97/1065, June 25, 1997, inventory no. P8712042.

Surface

  • Surface Sheen Semireflective
  • Techniques Enlargement
    Double exposure
  • PTM
    View of the recto of the artwork made using reflectance transformation imaging (RTI) software, which exaggerates subtle surface details and renders the features of the artwork plainly visible. Department of Conservation, MoMA
  • Micro-raking
    Raking-light close-up image, as shot. Area of detail is 6.7 x 6.7 mm. Department of Conservation, MoMA
    Raking-light close-up image, processed. Processing included removal of color, equalization of the histogram, and sharpening, all designed to enhance visual comparison. Department of Conservation, MoMA

Paper Material

  • Format Metric
  • Weight Double weight
  • Thickness (mm) 0.30
  • UV Fluorescence Recto negative
    Verso negative
  • Fiber Analysis Softwood bleached sulfite 67%
    Hardwood bleached sulfite 10%
    Rag 18%
    Bast 5%
  • Material Techniques Developing-out paper
  • XRF

    This work was determined to be a gelatin silver print via X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectrometry.

    The following elements have been positively identified in the work, through XRF readings taken from its recto and verso (or from the mount, where the verso was not accessible):

    • Recto: P, S, Ca, Zn, Sr, Ag, Ba
    • Verso: Al, Si, S, K, Ca, Fe, Zn, Sr, Ba

    The graphs below show XRF spectra for three areas on the print: two of the recto—from areas of maximum and minimum image density (Dmax and Dmin)—and one of the verso or mount. The background spectrum represents the contribution of the XRF instrument itself. The first graph shows elements identified through the presence of their characteristic peaks in the lower energy range (0 to 8 keV). The second graph shows elements identified through the presence of their characteristic peaks in the higher energy range (8 to 40 keV).

    Areas examined: Recto (Dmax: black; Dmin: green), Verso or Mount (blue), Background (red)
    Elements identified: Al, Si, P, S, K, Ca, Ag, Ba
    Areas examined: Recto (Dmax: black; Dmin: green), Verso or Mount (blue), Background (red)
    Elements identified: Fe, Zn, Sr, Ag

In Context

Related Images

Hajo Rose. Kermesse artistique `. 1938. Letterpress, 11 5/8 x 8 1/4" (29.5 x 20.9 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Jan Tschichold Collection, Gift of Philip Johnson. © 2014 Hajo Rose/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/VG Bild-Kunst, Germany
Hajo Rose. Inrichting Fransman (Furnishing Frenchman). 1935. Letterpress, 8 3/4 x 5 1/2" (22.2 x 14.0 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Jan Tschichold Collection, Gift of Philip Johnson. © 2014 Hajo Rose/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/VG Bild-Kunst, Germany

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