CHRONOLOGY André Kertész Photographs: Seven Decades

1956. 1919 After discharge, returns to Budapest, where he meets Erzsébet Salamon (later Elizabeth Saly) at the office where they both work. Photographs The Dancing Faun, with Eugenio (Jen Q ) Kertész as his model.<br><br> -more- Page 2 1921 Meets and photographs many Hungarian artists.Takes leave of absence from his office job to live with an artist in the village of Abony, where he also learns beekeeping. 1922 3 25 Lives in Budapest, where he succeeds in having his pictures reproduced in the press. Erzsébet is his constant companion.<br><br> 1925 Relocates to Paris from Budapest. Meets many other Hungarian artists, composers, journalists, and writers there, including Paul Arma, István Beöthy, Brassaï, Noémi Ferenczy, Jozef Csáky, Gyula Zilzer, Lajos Tihanyi, and Marcel Vertès. 1926 Moves into apartment at 5, rue de Vanves in Montparnasse, where he lives until 1928.<br><br> Visits Piet Mondrian 9s studio and commences what will become a series of photographs representing the studios of artist friends. 1927 Meets Herwarth Walden, director of the Der Sturm gallery, Berlin. Walden is friends with Jan Sliwinsky, director of the gallery Au Sacre du Printemps, where Kertész 9s first exhibition opens on March 12.<br><br> The journal L 9Esprit nouveau , founded with the collaboration of Le Corbusier in Paris, publishes work by Kertész. 1928 Purchases Leica camera and uses it to create Meudon. Marries Rózsi Klein, a fellow Hungarian living in the same apartment building.<br><br> Receives copy of Albert Renger-Patzsch 9s book Die Welt ist schön from Anna-Marie Merkel. Work included in camera club exhibitions in Paris, Brussels, Ostende, and Prague. 1929 Represented in exhibitions Fotografie der Gegenwart, Essen, and International Austellung von Film und Foto, Stuttgart.<br><br> Publication of first major article on his work in L 8Art vivant by Jean Gallotti, cLa Photographie Est-Elle un Art? d 1930 American debut of his work appears at New York Art Center in An Exhibition of Foreign Advertising Photography . Awarded silver medal for work in Colonial Exposition , Paris; group exhibition at Gewerbesmuseum, Basel. Pictures are bought for reproduction in numerous illustrated magazines in Europe.<br><br> 1931 Separates from Rózsi Klein. Erzsébet Salamon (now Elizabeth Saly) visits Paris; she and Kertész reunite and move to rue du Contentin. Kertész exhibits with Photographies d 9Aujourd 9hui , Galerie d 9Art Contemporain, Paris and Association Belge de Photographie, Brussels.<br><br> -more- Page 3 1932 Participates in Exhibition of Modern Photography, Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain, and Modern European Photography at the Julien Levy Gallery, New York. 1933 Mother dies; Kertész returns to Hungary for the funeral. Marries Elizabeth.<br><br> First book, Enfants , with 60 photographs and text by Jean Nohain, is published. Completes the Distortions, a series of some 200 pictures of nudes reflected in a parabolic mirror. 1934 Second book, Paris Vu par André Kertész , with introduction by novelist Pierre MacOrlan, is published.<br><br> Distorted nudes exhibited at design showroom of Galerie Leleu. 1936 Nos amis les bêtes is published. First issue of Life appears, November 23.<br><br> Advent of Life perhaps inspires Kertész 9s interest in New York, where he goes with Elizabeth and remains for the rest of his life. Contract with Keystone Press Agency, New York. 1937 First solo exhibition in New York, consisting of 60 photographs at PM gallery.<br><br> Makes Arm and Ventilator and The Lost Cloud . Work published in Coronet and Harper 9s Bazaar. Five photographs are included in Beaumont Newhall 9s epochal Photography, 1839 31937 exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art.<br><br> 1939 Commissioned by Life to prepare personal reportage on the New York maritime trades, but his work is not published. He meets Alfred Stieglitz and Frank Crowninshield, editor-in-chief of Vanity Fair . Creates Melancholic Tulip .<br><br> 1941 31945 As a Hungarian citizen, Kertész is registered as an enemy alien by the United States government and is forbidden to photograph outdoors. For the next four years he photographs very little. In 1941 Elizabeth establishes a cosmetic firm in partnership with Frank Thomas (Ferenc Tamás).<br><br> One photograph is included in the Image of Freedom exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, which purchases Armonk for its collection. In 1945 the book Day of Paris , with text by George Davis, is published in New York. Begins regular work with House and Garden magazine.<br><br> 1946 Exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago, curated by Hugh Edwards, Kertész 9s first serious recognition since arriving in America. 1949 Signs exclusive contract with Condé Nast Publications to work under the direction of Alexander Lieberman at House and Garden . Between 1945 and 1962 more than 3,000 of his photographs are reproduced in its pages, thus precluding personal work.<br><br> -more- Page 4 1952 Moved to 2 Fifth Avenue, occupying a two-bedroom apartment overlooking Washington Square. Begins series of photographs of Washington Square. 1962 Is hospitalized for minor surgery.<br><br> While recuperating, decides to resign from House and Garden in order to work independently . 1963 Travels to Paris for the first time since his emigration; recovers negatives saved for him during the war, including Broken Plate, Paris . Solo exhibition in Paris at the Bibliothèque Nationale.<br><br> 1964 Exhibition of 51 photographs at Museum of Modern Art selected by John Szarkowski. 1966 Begins association with Igor Bakht, a skillful darkroom technician, who makes exhibition and reproduction prints from Kertész 9s negatives. Begins association with Grossman Publishers, Inc., which issues a small-format survey of selected work from 1912 to 1966 with text by Anna Fárová.<br><br> 1968 Travels to Tokyo, where the exhibition The Concerned Photographer , organized by Cornell Capa and including approximately 30 Kertész photographs, is installed. 1970 Included in the Photo Eye of the Twenties exhibition, selected by Beaumont Newhall and installed at the George Eastman House, Rochester, and the Museum of Modern Art, New York. 1971 Begins association with Nicolas Ducrot, who edits a series of small monographs reminiscent of Kertész 9s Paris monographs, commencing with On Reading and eventually including Washington Square (1975), Distortions (1976) Of New York (1976) and Americana, Birds, Portraits, Landscapes (all 1979).<br><br> 1972 Grossman publishes André Kertész: Sixty Years of Photography , edited by Nicolas Ducrot, with 250 reproductions spanning the years 1911 to 1972. 1973 Awarded the Prix Nadar, a prize from the French government for the book Sixty Years of Photography . 1977 Elizabeth dies in New York.<br><br> -more- Page 5 1973 31985 Kertész continues to photograph, often returning to themes and strategies established 60 years before. Is honored by an international array of exhibitions usually consisting of prints made under his direction by Igor Bakht. Receives honorary degrees, medals, and ribbons from universities, professional organizations, and ministries of culture and education from several countries.<br><br> 1985 Kertész dies in New York on September 28, just before the opening in New York of the exhibition, André Kertész: Of Paris and New York. Organized by the Art Institute of Chicago and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, selected by David Travis, Weston Naef, and Sandra Phillips, it is the first museum survey of Kertész 9s art consisting solely of prints made contemporaneously with the negatives. Out of respect for the strong influence of France on his creative life, he bequeaths negatives and correspondence to the French Ministry of Culture.<br><br>

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