Space Modulator L3

1934

Leaves Nazi Germany for Amsterdam

After the Nazis came to power in 1933, Moholy-Nagy, as a foreign citizen, was no longer allowed to work in Germany. In 1934 he emigrated to Amsterdam and worked in the Netherlands, mostly on commercial jobs.

1935

London: the Isokon and a dream of an English Bauhaus

In 1935 Moholy-Nagy moved with his family to London and joined the circle of émigré artists and intellectuals in Hampstead: he lived for eight months with Walter Gropius in the Isokon building, then settled in Golders Green. He and Gropius planned an English Bauhaus but could not secure backing, and the Royal College of Art turned him down for a teaching post.

1935–1937 · Residenza

London

1937

Director of the New Bauhaus in Chicago

On Walter Gropius's recommendation and at the invitation of Walter Paepcke, chairman of the Container Corporation of America, Moholy-Nagy moved to Chicago as founding director of the New Bauhaus. The school's philosophy was unchanged from the original, and it was housed in the Prairie Avenue mansion Richard Morris Hunt had designed for the department-store magnate Marshall Field.

1937

Works in the “Degenerate Art” exhibition

Nazi Germany included Moholy-Nagy's works in its infamous propaganda exhibition “Degenerate Art” in Munich.

1937–1946 · Residenza

Chicago