Andre Kertesz: Postcards from Paris by Elizabeth Siegel
The first comprehensive study of these rare, influential objects, documenting a formative moment in the noted photographers early career
This elegant book unites all of the known carte postale prints by the photographer Andre Kertesz (18941985), including portraits, views of Paris, careful studio scenes, and exquisitely simple still lifes. Essays shed new light on the artists most acclaimed images; themes of materiality, exile, and communication; his illustrious and bohemian social circle; and the changing identity of art photography. Playful yet refined, the books design reflects the spirit of 1920s Paris while underscoring the modernity of the catalogues more than 250 illustrated works. Kertesz made his rigorously composed prints on inexpensive but lush postcard stock, sharing them with friends and sending them back to family in Hungary. The works reveal the artist learning his craft as he encountered an international group of modernistsincluding Piet Mondrian, Fernand Leger, and Joseph Csakyin the interwar metropolis. Prized by collectors as well as by Kertesz himself, the cartes postales influenced his compositions and the intimate scale of his picture making for decades.
Distributed for the Art Institute of Chicago
(October 2, 2021January 17, 2022)
High Museum of Art, Atlanta
(February 18May 29, 2022)
This elegant book unites all of the known carte postale prints by the photographer Andre Kertesz (18941985), including portraits, views of Paris, careful studio scenes, and exquisitely simple still lifes. Essays shed new light on the artists most acclaimed images; themes of materiality, exile, and communication; his illustrious and bohemian social circle; and the changing identity of art photography. Playful yet refined, the books design reflects the spirit of 1920s Paris while underscoring the modernity of the catalogues more than 250 illustrated works. Kertesz made his rigorously composed prints on inexpensive but lush postcard stock, sharing them with friends and sending them back to family in Hungary. The works reveal the artist learning his craft as he encountered an international group of modernistsincluding Piet Mondrian, Fernand Leger, and Joseph Csakyin the interwar metropolis. Prized by collectors as well as by Kertesz himself, the cartes postales influenced his compositions and the intimate scale of his picture making for decades.
Distributed for the Art Institute of Chicago
Exhibition Schedule:
(October 2, 2021January 17, 2022)
High Museum of Art, Atlanta
(February 18May 29, 2022)