1210 Astor Street Chicago, Illinois • Telephone Superior 3413

30th.
August
1938

Dear Miss Dreier

Thank you very much for your kind letter and please
forgive us for not having thanked you earlier for
a most pleasant and stimulating visit. We were
all the time very much concerned with some disagreeable
financial school business but we very often talked
about you, recalling the score of unusual and valuable
impressions.

I of course, ardent town hater as I am, was most
impressed with the beauty and solitude of your property
and with the wonderful unity of nature and house, which
you have so admirably achieved. Moholy recalled all the
works of art he saw, mainly of cause the Duchamps, which
left him deeply impressed. So thank you again and a
little snapshot of ours (the only one now available )
will be sent to you to-morrow when I get the print.

As for Molzahn, he wrote yesterday and Moholy has sent
immediately a letter to Mr. Isaacs, of which I enclose
a copy. You know we feel that Molzahn perhaps took it
a bit too much for granted, that he would get the
appointment and it was a pitty, as that he wrote his letter
to Mr. Isaacs in an English, uncontrolled by an
Englishman. I am afraid, that he created by his inevitable
mistakes not a very good impression which would have been
avoidable. Besides this he emphasized his being here
on a guest permit, what was very honest but will have,
most probably, frightened poeple over there. However
this might be, we will try everything to help him and
feel only sorry that our own unexpected difficulties
make it rather difficult for us.

We both are very much looking forward to seeing you over
here

Gratefully
Yours

Ps. My very best to the
yellow parrot!

August
30th.
1938

Mr.
Walter F. Isaacs
Director of Fine Arts
University of Washington
*Seattle*

My dear Mr. Isaacs

please forgive me for mentioning again the case of Mr. Johannes
Molzahn to you.

As you know he is very much interested in the position as
an art teacher you had to offer and he would be most grateful
if his application would be closely considered. He has in
the meantime got excellent informations about Seattle and
the University, that he would even consider to come for the
proposed salary of 2000 Dollars. His English has improved
rapidly and I am sure that the formalities for changing his
visitors admission into a permanent permit would be a minor
affair with respect to the excellent reputation his has in this
country.

I do of course not want to urge you but I only can repeat
that I consider Mr. Molzahn as one of the most original and
modern teachers in art and that I would be happy to have him
with me if the circumstances would permit it.

Mr. Molzahn's present adress is c/o Professor Rademacher,
513. Ogden Avenue, Swarthmore Penn. in case you feel
you might write him for a decision in one way or an other.

980 corbett avenue san francisco 14 california telephone valencia 4-4823

August 10, 1950

Miss Katherine S. Dreier
130 West River Street
Milford, Connecticut

Dear Miss Dreier:

I found your charming letter from July 25th waiting for me when I returned from a long lecture Tour that took me to England, all through Germany, Switzerland and France. I would be delighted to receive the Catalogue of the Collection of the Société which will be of invaluable help for me in my teaching. I read History of Art at the University of California Extension Division in Berkeley and at the Rudolf Schaeffer School of Design in San Francisco.

Harper Brothers published my large biography of Moholy's life and work in May under the title

Moholy-Nagy, *Experiment in Totality*.

Since you don't mention the book in your letter, I assume that you haven't seen it yet, and it has given me great pleasure to have sent you a copy today under separate cover. I would be very pleased if you would let me know your reaction whenever you have time for it.

I would like to ask your advice in the following matter: I would very much want the Yale Collection to have one of the very beautiful paintings or sculptures which Moholy did in the last ten years of his life. You will find in the biography reproductions of some of the pieces which made a beautiful exhibit at the Fogg Museum last February-March. Do you think I could approach the Yale Collection for buying a piece which, of course, would be priced in a way that it would be possible for their budget. I would feel that the very best of what remains in my hands of his work should be there.

Your answer in this matter would be very much appreciated.
I hope you'll have a lovely holiday in Maine. I feel a bit depleted
after 17 lectures in 11 different towns and many distressing reencoun-
ters in Germany after 15 years of absence. Yet the response of
the audiences, particularly of the young people, in London, Berlin,
Munich, etc. to Moholy's work, of which I had excellent color slides,
was astounding and most gratifying. I felt the strain had been worth
his while.

Most sincerely, as always, yours

August 29, 1950

Dear Mrs. Moholy-Nagy:

Your very lovely letter of August 10th was forwarded to me while I was in Maine taking a much needed rest after the arduous task of the Catalogue. I was so very happy to receive it and so very glad to know where you are so that we can keep in touch with each other.

I have just returned and found not only your copy of "Moholy-Nagy, a Biography" with the personal inscription which I value so much, but also the copy which I had ordered before leaving for my vacation through Wittenborn, which I will now pass on to the library at Yale.

As I am just back I have only had a chance to glance through your book, and am looking forward with great pleasure to reading it shortly.

I was delighted to think that you quoted from "Alice in Wonderland", for unless one understood the motive power which was so akin to Lewis Carroll's whimsicality, one misses the whole heart of the modern movement -- at least so it seems to me -- and so I rejoice whenever I have evidence of this.

I am so sorry that neither Duchamp nor I realized that you would want the Collection of the Société Anonyme to have one of the very beautiful paintings or sculpture which Moholy-Nagy did in the last ten years of his life. Unfortunately, with the publication of the Catalogue, the Collection of the Société Anonyme has come to a close, and we are in the midst of dissolving our little organization, the Société Anonyme. However, later you and I may be able to get together and present to the Yale University Art Gallery one of these paintings or sculpture, if by that time they have not all been dispersed. I am afraid that at present the Art Gallery feels that this form of art overbalances some of the other art expressions, which is very much needed in their teaching of art, and so I think it would not be a wise time to approach them now, but we can always take up that matter sometime when we see each other.

How wonderful to have had this trip giving these splendid lectures on Moholy's work, and though it must have been very fatiguing it must have also been very gratifying. I rejoice with you that you were physically able to do that, because my own lameness has handicapped me a great deal, and I am now more or less anchored here in Milford. Do let me know when you come East, and mayabe it would be possible for you to come out for a day to see me.