"Bewegungsstudie"

photogravure

signed in the negative, typographically inscribed on the verso "Kodak Magazine Supplement 'Bewegungs Studie' by Rudolf Koppitz from the Royal Photographic Society Collection"

Rudolf Koppitz is considered one of the most important Austrian photographers of the interwar period and one of the most important representatives of art photography in the German-speaking world. His oeuvre spans several decades and is characterized by an enormous range of styles and techniques. Koppitz began his career as a photographer in 1908. At that time, photography was mainly limited to documenting reality and nature, but Koppitz already showed a preference for the aesthetic and artistic character of photography in his early works. From the 1910s onwards, Koppitz experimented with various photographic techniques and developed his own visual language, which was influenced by the aesthetics of Pictorialism. This is a style characterized by soft contours, atmospheric moods and a certain blurriness. Koppitz used this technique in his landscape photographs, creating images of impressive beauty and intensity. In the 1920s, Koppitz turned more to nude photography. His nude studies are characterized by a particular clarity and sharpness and show women in dynamic poses that convey strength and beauty and in their form and design are partly still close to Art Nouveau and partly to Constructivism.
The movement study from 1925 is probably Koppitz's best-known photograph. The photograph shows a movement study of the Russian dance group of the solo dancer of the Vienna State Opera Claudia Issatschenko, known primarily for the “modern art dance” of the time - today referred to as expressive dance.
(Christoph Fuchs)