PHOTOGRAPHS
Bayer, Herbert
Austria / U.S. (1900 - 1985)
Lonely Metropolitan
1932
Gelatin silver print
13 1/2 x 10 1/2 in. (34.3 x 26.7 cm) image size; 14 x 11 in. (35.6 x 27.9 cm) sheet size
Joseph and Elaine Monsen Photography Collection, gift of Joseph and Elaine Monsen and The Boeing Company
FA 97.20

Herbert Bayer’s training in graphic design and painting contributed greatly to his very different and highly personal approach to photomontage. In this celebrated work, a pair of eyes unexpectedly stares out of the palms of two imploring hands set before a desolate cityscape. The mingling of photographic realism and dreamlike fantasy was characteristic of the surrealist art of the time, but Bayer’s emphatic design and technical polish far surpassed the typical surrealist production. His photomontages were unprecedented for their combination of graphic clarity and spatial ambiguity, and contributed greatly to establishing the camera’s potential as an instrument of abstract vision. -- Label copy for After Art: Rethinking 150 Years of Photography. Henry Art Gallery, December 4, 1994 – March 26, 1995.