2011.5
Untitled (Graffiti number 80 from the series "Magic")
Artist
Brassäi (Gyula Halász)
(Hungary, 1899 - 1984, Côte d'Azur, France)
Title
Untitled (Graffiti number 80 from the series "Magic")
Creation Date
ca. 1933-1956
Dimensions
4 11/16 in. x 3 9/16 in. (11.91 cm x 9.1 cm)
Classification
Photographs
Creation Place
Eastern Europe, Hungary
Medium and Support
gelatin silver print
Credit Line
Museum Purchase, Gridley W. Tarbell II Fund and the Lloyd O. and Marjorie Strong Coulter Fund
Copyright
This artwork may be under copyright. For further information, please consult the Museum’s
Copyright Terms and Conditions.
Accession Number
2011.5
In a series that occupied him for three decades, Brassaï documented Parisian graffiti. In his perception, these marks were the scribblings of urban “primitives” who, unhampered by cultural restrictions, expressed themselves subversively and destructively. The menacing faces gouged into walls were found objects that, when photographed by Brassaï at close range and in dramatic lighting, gained the mythic power of symbolic masks.