Art of the 20th Century
Andre Kertesz
Kertesz Andre
(b Budapest, 2 July 1894; d New York, 27 Sept 1985).
American photographer of Hungarian birth. As a young man he used to wander around Budapest and visit the Ethnographic Museum. At this time Bela Bartok and Zoltan Kodaly were rediscovering Hungarian folk music, and Hungarian poets and painters were looking at their ancient vernacular traditions for inspiration. Kertesz, who started taking photographs at the age of 12, also tried to reflect these interests, both in his choice of countryside subjects and in the simplicity of his style. Self-taught, he often took his camera with him when he went to visit relatives in the small peasant towns of the Hungarian heartland, the puszta. He tried to go beyond mere recording of holiday memories, or of the idyllic relationship of the country people to nature; he rather sought out timeless and essential qualities in the ordinary day-to-day events that he saw around him.
Distortion
1933
Distortion, Paris
1933
Distortion # 91
1933
(Distortion #167), Paris
1933
Distortion #40, Paris
1933
Distortion #172, Paris
1933
Distortion # 70
1933
Distortion # 48
1933
Distortion
Distortion
1930
Mannequin, Storeroom of the Academie
1936
The Lost Cloud, New York
1937
Arm and Ventilator
1937
Poughkeepsie, New York
1937
Midtown Manhattan
1938
Melancholic Tulip
1939
Empire State Building
1939
Nude
1941
Lion and Shadow
1949
Watchmaker's Shop, Christopher Street
1950
United Nations Building, New York
1951
Snow Covered Bench, Washington Square Park
1959
Sixth Avenue, New York
1959
New York, 34th St.
1959
Washington Square Playground
1961
The White Horse, New York
1962
New York
1966
Woman in Window Looking Down Air Shaft, 23rd Street, New York
1970
Martinique
1972
Manua Kea, Honolulu
1974
University Place, New York
1978
February
1979
Paris Breakfast
1982
Elizabeth and I at the Cafe du Dome, Paris
Elizabeth's Book, Newtown
Glasses and Pipe
Untitled
Carnival, Paris (woman reading behind stage)
New York (girls in fairy costumes)
Nara (readers on commuter trains)
New York (boy eating ice cream on pile of newspapers)
Medici Fountain, Paris
New York (bug and book)
