André Kertész

In a career that spanned much of the twentieth century, Hungarian-born photographer André Kertész (1894-1985) created deceptively simple yet compelling and poetic photographs. This book presents approximately 120 of these striking images as well as previously unpublished archival material that sheds important light on the artist and his work.

Like the exhibition it accompanies, André Kertész takes us through Kertész’s years in Budapest, Paris, and New York. Unlike other works on Kertész, it presents only vintage prints and includes several seldom seen photographs from throughout his career.

Written by renowned art historian Sarah Greenough and Kertész Foundation curator Robert Gurbo, André Kertész includes excerpts from the photographer’s previously unexamined journals and correspondence–documents that prompted the authors to reexamine every period of Kertész’s life and work. They reflect on their findings in essays covering each of the major phases in Kertész’s career.

While the book includes examples of the artist’s most important photographs, including Chez Mondrian, The Satiric Dancer , and The Eiffel Tower , it also focuses on the intensely autobiographical nature of his work. It elegantly demonstrates the ways in which Kertész injected his persona, both literally and metaphorically, into his work.

Accompanying the book’s essays and exquisite tritone reproductions of his photographs are an illustrated chronology that corrects many previous errors, a comprehensive bibliography, and selections of previously unpublished writings by the photographer.

EXHIBITION

National Gallery of Art, Washington
February 6-May 15, 2005

Los Angeles County Museum of Art
June 12-September 5, 2005