[Self-Portrait at Typewriter, Prellerstrasse Studio]

Oskar Schlemmer, 1925

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Artist: Oskar Schlemmer (German, 1888–1943)
Medium: Gelatin silver print
Size: Image: 10.8 × 7.6 cm (4 1/4 × 3 in.)
Culture: German
Museum: J. Paul Getty Museum
Rights: CC0 — no rights reserved

This multiple exposure self-portrait of Oscar Schlemmer as a spectral presence in his studio creates a puzzle of numerous layers. His transparent body is much too large to sit at the typewriter before him, although he appears ready to push his chair forward to get to work. As the different exposures blend, stacks of paper and a frame on the desk behind him become the pattern of his vest.

Two white-cuffed hands seem to hold up the cabinets in the upper left corner, yet the way in which the corner of the cabinet is visible through the right hand indicates that the hands represent another, separate exposure from those of the studio and photographer. Schlemmer exposed one sheet of film several different times in order to achieve this unlikely blending of forms.

Text: J. Paul Getty Trust, CC BY 4.0.