The Fork

Artist André Kertész (American, born Hungary, 1894 - 1985)

Date1928

MediumGelatin silver print

DimensionsImage: 2 15/16 × 3 5/8 inches (7.46 × 9.21 cm)
Sheet: 3 1/16 × 3 11/16 inches (7.78 × 9.37 cm)

Credit LineGift of Hallmark Cards, Inc.

Object number2005.27.304

SignedSigned on sheet verso, bottom, in black pen: "A. Kertesz"

InscribedOn sheet verso, bottom, in black pen: "Paris, 1928."

Markingsnone

On View

Not on view

Collections

Photography

Terms

DescriptionImage of a fork with tines resting on edge of a round plate; stark shadows are cast below.Exhibition History

Exhibition History

André Kertész Form and Feeling. Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia, February 15 – April 20, 1992, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, May 20 – July 26, 1992, Auckland City Art Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand, September 3 – November 1, 1992, no. 30 cat.

André Kertész. The National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., February 6 – May 15, 2005, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA, June 12 – September 5, 2005, no. 52 cat.

Rotation 3. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, March 20 – August 18, 2008, no cat.

Rotation 11. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, September 17, 2011 – March 18, 2012, no cat.

Gallery Label

André Kertész's long photographic career began in Hungary in 1912. He lived in Paris from 1925 to 1936 before coming to New York City. While many of his pictures have the simplicity of amateur snapshots, Kertész made extensive use of such modernist devices as the aerial view and the extreme close-up. This work, one of the most important of his Parisian period, exemplifies the transformative powers of his vision by suggesting an inherent mystery in the mundane. Kertész's Fork is at once realistic and abstract, intimate and monumental.

Provenance

Hallmark Cards, Inc., Kansas City, MO, 1991;
Given by Hallmark Cards, Inc. to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2005.

Published References

Keith F. Davis. André Kertész Form and Feeling. Kansas City, MO: Hallmark Cards, Inc. and The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1992, cover (repro.).

Sarah Greenough and Robert Gurbo, André Kertész. Washington D.C. : National Gallery of Art, in association with Princeton University Press, 2005. Published in conjunction with André Kertész, shown at the National Gallery of Art and Los Angeles County Museum of Art, plate 52 (repro.).

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