id: 156888 accession number: 1992.97 share license status: Copyrighted url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1992.97 updated: 2024-03-26 02:00:16.557000 Lesbian Couple at Le Monocle, 1932. Brassaï (French, 1899–1984). Gelatin silver print; image: 37.9 x 28 cm (14 15/16 x 11 in.); matted: 55.9 x 45.7 cm (22 x 18 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Anselm Talalay in honor of Evan Turner 1992.97 © The Brassaï Estate - RMN title: Lesbian Couple at Le Monocle title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 1932 creation date earliest: 1932 creation date latest: 1932 current location: creditline: Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Anselm Talalay in honor of Evan Turner copyright: © The Brassaï Estate - RMN --- culture: France technique: gelatin silver print department: Photography collection: PH - French 20th Century type: Photograph find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Brassaï (French, 1899–1984) - artist Brassaï (Gyula Halász) French, born Austria-Hungary, 1899-1984 A photographer, painter, sculptor, and writer, Brassaï became known during the 1930s for his photographs of Parisian nightlife. Initially interested in painting, he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts, Budapest (1918-19), and the Academische Hochschule, Berlin-Charlottenburg (1921-22). He adopted the name Brassaï (after his hometown, Brasso) following his move in 1924 to Paris, where he worked as a painter and journalist for Hungarian and German newspapers. Around 1929-30 Brassaï began to take photographs, receiving advice from Hungarian photographer André Kertész. His special interest was the city at night; during his walks after dark he photographed Paris dance halls, cafes, bars, and bordellos, as well as the vagrants and thugs who roamed the dimly lit streets. In 1933 Brassaï's nocturnal views of Paris were published as Paris de Nuit (Paris by Night). The book was a great success and helped to launch his photographic career. Brassaï began to receive assignments from such journals as Verve, Labyrinthe, and Minotaure, a new review of art and literature which commissioned him to photograph artists and their studios. He also became associated with Harper's Bazaar and over the next three decades completed many assignments for the magazine. Among the artists and writers he came to know during this period were Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, Alberto Giacometto, André Breton, Tristan Tzara, and Man Ray. During the German occupation of Paris in the 1940s, no longer able to wander freely through the streets, Brassaï turned to drawing; he also began to photograph Picasso's sculpture in his Paris studio. After the war, Brassaï continued his photographic series Graffiti and designed the photographic backdrops for several plays and ballets; he also published Histoire de Marie (1949), a surrealist poem with a preface by Henry Miller. In the mid-1950s he won a prize at the Cannes film festival for his movie Tant qui'il y aura des bêtes and in 1964 published a critically acclaimed book, Conversations avec Picasso. Throughout his career Brassaï exhibited his pictures widely, including a one-person exhibition of his photographs of graffiti at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in the mid-1950s, followed by a retrospective of his work there in 1968. M.M. --- measurements: Image: 37.9 x 28 cm (14 15/16 x 11 in.); Matted: 55.9 x 45.7 cm (22 x 18 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Signs of Affection: Gifts Honoring the Museum's 75th Anniversary opening date: 1992-10-27T05:00:00 Signs of Affection: Gifts Honoring the Museum's 75th Anniversary. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 27, 1992-January 3, 1993). title: Legacy of Light: Master Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art opening date: 1996-11-24T05:00:00 Legacy of Light: Master Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 24, 1996-February 2, 1997). title: Brassaï: The Eye of Paris opening date: 1998-12-06T00:00:00 Brassaï: The Eye of Paris. Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX (organizer) (December 6, 1998-February 28, 1999); J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA (April 14-July 4, 1999); National Gallery of Art, Landover, MD (October 17, 1999-January 16, 2000). title: Twilight Visions: Surrealism, Photography, and Paris opening date: 2008-10-10T00:00:00 Twilight Visions: Surrealism, Photography, and Paris. Telfair Museum of Art, Savannah, GA (June 9-October 10, 2010). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS --- PROVENANCE Anselm Talalay [1912-1994] and Marjorie Freedman Talalay [1921-2008], Cleveland, OH date: ?-1992 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: May 18, 1992 footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS "1992 Annual Report." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 80, no. 6 (1993): 215-95. page number: Reproduced: p. 246 url: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25161418 Cleveland Museum of Art, Tom E Hinson. Catalogue of Photography. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1996. page number: Reproduced: P. 108 url: --- IMAGES