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Art of the 20th Century
A Revolution in the Arts
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Art Styles
in 20th century Art Map
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Brassai

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Brassai (Gyula Halasz)
(b Brasso, Transylvania, Hungary [now Romania], 9 Sept 1899; d
Nice, 8 July 1984).
French photographer, draughtsman, sculptor and writer of Hungarian birth.
The son of a Hungarian professor of French literature, he lived in Paris
in 1903–4 while his father was on sabbatical there, and this early
experience of the city greatly impressed him. In 1917 he met the composer
Béla Bartók, and from 1918 to 1919 he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts
in Budapest. Due to the hostility between Hungary and France in World War
I he was unable to study in France and so moved to Berlin in late 1920.
There he became acquainted with László Moholy-Nagy, Kandinsky and
Kokoschka and in 1921–2 attended the Akademische Hochschule in
Charlottenburg, Berlin. He was a keen draughtsman and while there produced
a series of characteristic drawings of nudes executed in an angular,
emphatic style. In 1924 he moved to Paris, where he quickly became
involved with the artists and poets of the Montmartre and Montparnasse
districts while supporting himself as a journalist. In 1925 he adopted the
name Brassai, derived from that of his native town, and throughout that
year he continued drawing as well as making sculptures. In 1926 he met
André Kertész, who introduced him to photography. In 1930 Brassai began
taking photographs of Paris at night, concentrating on its architecture
and the nocturnal activities of its inhabitants. These were collected and
published as Paris de nuit in 1933 and showed the night workers,
cafés, brothels, theatres, streets and buildings of the capital. The
artificial lighting created strong tonal contrasts, lending the images a
strikingly evocative beauty. Some of his photographs were included in the
exhibition Modern European Photographers at the Julien Levy Gallery
in New York in 1932, and the following year at the Arts et Métiers
Graphiques in Paris he had a one-man show of his photographs of Paris,
which travelled to the Batsford Gallery in London the same year.
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Backstage
at the Folies-Bergere
1933
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"Bijou" of
the Montmartre cabarets
From "Paris by Night"
1933
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Chez "Suzy"
1932-33
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Lovers in a
Bistro
1932-33
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Lovers
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Arc de Triomphe
From "Paris by Night"
1933
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Open Gutter
From "Paris by Night"
1933
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"House of
illusion"
From "Paris by Night"
1933
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Notre Dame
from the Ile Saint-Louis
From "Paris by Night"
1933
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Obelisk and
fountains in the Place de la Concorde
From "Paris by Night"
1933
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"Bijou" of
the Montmartre cabarets
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Palais-Royale
train station
From "Paris by Night"
1933
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Place de
la Concorde from Automobile Club
From "Paris by Night"
1933
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Boulevards
at the Place de l'Opera
From "Paris by Night"
1933
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Oldest
police station in Paris
From "Paris by Night"
1933
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Tugboats
and barges beside Pont-Neuf
From "Paris by Night"
1933
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Prostitute
at angle of
Rue de la Reynie and Rue Quincampoix
From "Paris by Night"
1933
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Boulevard Montparnasse, Paris
1932
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Under one
of the Seine bridges
From "Paris by Night"
1933
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Seville
1952-53
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Lovers in a small
cafe in the Italian quarter
1932
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Kiki singing in a Montparnasse
cabaret
1933
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Aristide Maillol at Work on L'Ile de
France
1932
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Mannequin
dans la vitrine
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Avenue de l’Observatoire
1934
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Gala Soiree at Maxim’s
1949
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Girl Playing Snooker, Montmartre
1933
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The Pont Neuf in Paris
1932
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Lesbian Couple at Le Monocle
1932
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Nun in Kitchen
1932
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Brassai photographing Paris at Night
1932
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Gens du milieu
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Balloon
1931
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Dean of Porters
1935
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Grand Central
1957
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Henry Miller
1933
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Picasso
1932
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Picasso
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Holy Week, Seville
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Dali on a Rock in Cap Creus
1955
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Maillol's Study at Marly le Roi
1936
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Plain Tree
1945
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Young Prostitute
1932

Seville en fete
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Untitled
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