Photograph, Marly Horse, Place de la Concorde, Paris

This object is not part of the Cooper Hewitt's permanent collection. It was able to spend time at the museum on loan from Merrill Berman as part of Underground Modernist: E. McKnight Kauffer.

In the early 1930s, Kauffer acquired a cutting-edge Leica camera and began to experiment with photography. Photomontage emerged as an important element of his design practice. In some cases, such as with this lithograph, he used his own photography. Kauffer incorporated his photograph of a monumental sculpture from the Place de la Concorde in Paris to playfully allude to the term “horsepower.”

This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition Underground Modernist: E. McKnight Kauffer.