Theodore Brauner
Solarfixe, 1946-50
Estimated Value: $5,000

Vintage Silver Print
11.75 x 9.375 inches
Unframed
Photographer's copyright stamp on reverse of the mount.
Courtesy of Susan Herzig & Paul Hertzmann, Paul Hertzmann, Inc.

About the Artist:
Theodore Brauner

After engagement with photography and surrealism and membership in the surrealist group Alge in Bucharest in his youth, Brauner arrived in Paris and made his first cameraless photographs, which he called “solarfixes” in 1934.

Without a darkroom or darkroom equipment, using only sunlight and chemicals, Brauner created these delicate abstract works. Forced to flee Europe during World War II he arrived in Israel in 1944 where he exhibited the solarfixes in 1955. They were not exhibited again until after his death.

In 1954 he initiated a photographic project entitled “Silent Visitor.” By enabling a mouse that visited his flat each night to release the camera shutter as he nibbled on some food Brauner left out for him in his kitchen, Brauner recorded the animal’s nocturnal raids. This series was published in 1962. He settled in Paris in 1956 where he created his series of anthropological “Masques.”