/PHOTOGRAPHERS/PHER BRASSAI

Brassaï

1899–1984 · Hungarian-French

No catalogued plates attributed to Brassaï yet — the catalog seeding is in progress.

Notes

Six plates in the catalog (count verified by strict-match grep against data/photographs.csv 2026-05-09): photo-0123 (#129 Land, France, 140 x 112 cm — among the largest plates in the exhibition), photo-0195 (#203 Adult Play, France), photo-0250 (#260 Food, France), photo-0285 (#296 Relationships, France), photo-0356 (#370 Religious Expression, France), photo-0403 (#416 Teens, France). All six set in France; all credited ‘Rapho Guillumette / French’ in the MoMA Master Checklist; the photographer’s name renders as ‘Brassai’ (without diacritic) in every checklist row. Born 1899 / died 1984 verbatim per src-icp-brassai-archive (in repo, fetched 2026-05-09: ‘1899 - 1984’ / ‘French (b. Transylvania)’) and src-britannica-brassai (in repo, fetched 2026-05-09: ‘Brassaï (born September 9, 1899, Brassó, Transylvania, Austria-Hungary [now Romania]—died July 8, 1984, Eze, near Nice, France) was a Hungarian-born French photographer’). Birth name ‘Gyula Halász’ verbatim per src-icp-brassai-archive (‘Brassaï, born Gyula Halász in the town of Brasov, Transylvania’) and src-britannica-brassai (‘Original name: Gyula Halász’; ‘French: Jules Halasz’). Settled in Paris 1924 verbatim per both: src-britannica-brassai (‘Brassaï trained as an artist and settled in Paris in 1924’) and src-icp-brassai-archive (‘moving to Paris in 1924’). PLACE-OF-DEATH DISCREPANCY: src-britannica-brassai records ‘Eze, near Nice’; src-wikipedia-brassai-pointer (in repo) records ‘Beaulieu-sur-Mer’; both communes lie on the French Riviera near Nice; not adjudicated this round. PARIS DE NUIT YEAR DISCREPANCY: src-britannica-brassai gives 1933 (‘Paris de nuit (1933)’); src-icp-brassai-archive gives 1932 (‘Paris de Nuit … was both critically and popularly acclaimed when issued in 1932’); src-wikipedia-brassai-pointer (in repo) gives 1933. The 1933 date carries the corroboration weight of two of three sources fetched in this round. The 1949 French naturalization claim is carried from src-wikipedia-brassai-pointer (in repo, NOT re-corroborated this round at year-level). Steichen-curated 1956 MoMA Brassaï exhibition (postdating FoM by one year) is carried from src-wikipedia-brassai-pointer (in repo, NOT re-corroborated this round); src-britannica-brassai records a 1968 MoMA retrospective (‘The Museum of Modern Art in New York City held a retrospective exhibition of Brassaï’s work in 1968’) — this is a distinct, later exhibition.

External biography

https://www.icp.org/browse/archive/constituents/brassai-gyula-halasz

Sources

src-moma-exh-0569-master-checklist
src-wikipedia-brassai-pointer
src-icp-brassai-archive
src-britannica-brassai