Exhibition print, unsigned. Approved by the Kertész estate. This photograph of wine cellars in an Hungarian agricultural village, was made just after WWI. Kertesz, new to photography, was a member of a camera club, and this photograph was taken on one of the club’s field trips. Everyone was told to consider what there was to see, but to limit themselves to only 4-5 shots. This was one of Kertesz’. It is significant in his artistic development in that it sits somewhere between pictorial naturalism and abstract modernism as a transitional work. Of course we know we are looking at an elevated view of a village, although from a rather Chagall-like elevation, but we can’t help but see the shapes of the fields and the wine cellars themselves, dissolving into abstract forms. This proto-abstraction sets the stage for what Kertesz was to do later, once he moved to Paris.
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