Florence Henri

Florence Henri was born in New York in 1893 to a French father and a German mother. After her mother’s death, she moved with her father to Europe and spent her childhood in several countries. She studied piano in Rome and Berlin before turning to painting in 1914. In Berlin, she met the art critic Carl Einstein, who introduced her to the city’s avant-garde circles. She continued her artistic training in Paris, studying with André Lhote and Fernand Léger. In 1927 she attended the Bauhaus in Dessau, where she took László Moholy-Nagy’s preliminary course and studied with Wassily Kandinsky and Paul Klee. Encouraged by Lucia Moholy, she began experimenting with photography. Using mirrors, geometric forms and reflections, she developed a distinctive visual language that brought together Constructivist principles and Surrealist strategies. In 1928 Moholy-Nagy presented her photographs in the Dutch magazine i10. internationale revue. The following year, Henri co-founded the group Cercle et Carré, dedicated to abstract art. During the Second World War, difficulties in obtaining photographic materials led her to return to painting. She continued to paint in the following decades, while also working with collage and textiles. She died in Compiègne, France, in 1982.

Josef Albers / Walter Gropius / Wassily Kandinsky / László Moholy-Nagy