1895 : lászló moholy-nagy is born july 20 in bacsborsod, hungary.

1905 : studies at szeged where he attends the university preparatory high school, the allami fogimnazium until 1913.

1913 : graduates and moves to budapest, where he registers for fall classes at the royal hungarian university of sciences.

1915 : enlists as an officer in the artillery of the austro-hungarian army at the beginning of wwi and is sent to the russian front.

1916 : begins to draw first sketches on military postcards in the area of galecia.

1917 : is wounded in the left hand on july 1 and spends a long period recovering in military hospitals in hungary. there he creates the first pencil and watercolor portraits while continuing to produce numerous drawings on postcards.

1918 : discharged from the army on september 29, he continues his law studies but leaves the university just before graduating art becomes his main focus. attends evening classes and in the fall exhibits come of his work in the veterans artists’ exhibition at the nemzeti szalon of budapest.

1919 : the directorate of arts and museums, established following the proclamation of the republic of councils, acquires three of his works (now in the hungarian national gallery). his name, written as mahoj nagy lászló, signed the manifesto forradalmarok! (revolutionsaries!). in november he and the sculptor sandor gergely exhibit at szeged. afterwards, moholy-nagymoves to vienna.

1920 : after spending several weeks in vienna, moves to berlin. in april he meets the photographer, lucia schulz and they are married on january 18th, 1921. he creates illustrations for walter hasenclever’s play, “die menshen” and makes his first contact with dadaism, meeting kurt schwitters, hannah hoch, and raoul hausmann. in october he makes his debut in the international art scene, exhibiting his works at the fritz gurlitt gallery in berlin with fellow countryman josez nemes lamperth and german born walter dexel and rolf voltmer.

1921 : on march 15th the journal ma publishes a moholy-nagy woodcut. on april 25th he becomes the german correspondant for ma. the september 15th issue is devoted to his artwork. the introduction is written by erno kallai under the pseudonym matyas peter. along with hausmann, arp and pini, he signs the manifesto of elemental art, aufruf zur elementaren kunst! which was publishes by de stijl in october. moholy-nagy meets el lissitzky in dusseldorf and begins to write the script for the film die dynamik der grossstadt (big city dynamics).

1922 : in february he and lászló peri exhibit at der strum gallery in berlin. the may 1 issue if ma publishes moholy-nagy’s nickel sculpture and features the composition glass architecture on the cover. he publishes and anthology of modern art an poetry with lajos kassak entitled uj muveszek konyve/buch neuer kunstler (book of the new artists) in both german and hungarian. with alfred kemeny he writes the dynamic construction energy system, published in der sturm in december. he then began research that led to the creation of the light-space modulator, a kinetic sculpture display that was completed in 1930. he also produced his first photographs.

1923 : exhibits again with peri at der sturm gallery in berlin. in the spring he joins the faculty at the bauhaus in weimar, where he is appointed head of both the intro course and the metal workshop. here he also preformed his first experiments with light and color as well as execution of typographical works.

1924 : exhibits work with hugo scheiber at der sturm gallery in berlin. works with walter gropius on the bauhausbucher project that foresees the publishing of a series of fifty books. he then experiments with photomontage and painting on non-traditional materials such as aluminum and plastics. in september ma publishes his screenplay, a nagyvaros dinamik.

1925 : moves from weimar to dessau, where the bauhaus is relocated. appearance of the first of fourteen bauhausbucher, including his own photography, paintings and film. publishes the theater of the bauhaus with farkas molnar and oskar sschlemmer. in the summer he travels to paris with siegfried giedion to visit l’exposition internationale des arts decoratifs et industriels modernes.

1926 : participates in the german photographic exhibition in frankfurt.

1927 : meets kasimir malevish in berlin. becomes film and photography editor for the new dutch periodical i10, published by a. muller lehening in amsterdam from january to june 1929.

1928 : due to political pressure, moholy-nagy, gropius, breuer and bayer resigned from the bauhaus. in the spring he moved to berlin where he opened a commercial design office, creating the stages for the state opera and various theaters. he continued to design stages until 1933.

1929 : a book based on the bauhaus preliminary course, the architectural materials published. when translated to english, it re-titled the new vision. separates from lucia, travels to marseille to make the film, marseille vieux port (old bridge).

1930 : participating in the werkbund section of the international exhibition of la societe des artistes decorateurs at the grand palace, he demonstrates the light-space modulator. it is a light prop designed for an electrical stage built in collaboration with istvan seboek and otto ball of the theatrical department of aeg in berlin. translating the light-space modulator into photographic values, he makes the film “lightplay”.

1931 : meets sibyl pietzsch. she eventually becomes his second wife and they have two daughters, hattula and claudia. has his first exhibition in the usa. makes a first documentary entitled, berlin still life.

1933 : attends the fourth c.i.a.m. (international congress of modern architecture), held in greece. makes the congress’ official documentary film.

1934 : moholy-nagy immigrates to amsterdam, where he works as a typographic consultant experimenting with color film and photography. the dutch society for arts and crafts organizes a one-man exhibition at a museum in amsterdam.

1935 : moving to london, he assumes the role of director of simpson ltd. and as a design consultant of the royal airlines and london transport. his principal interests center around animation and documentary film. in may and june he has major exhibitions in brno, czechoslovakia. that summer he begins work on the film, life of the lobster.

1936 : creates special effects for alexander korda’s version if h.g. wells, the shape of things to come. in paris he is part of a show organized by members of the abstraction-creation group. he signed the “manifeste dimensioniste”, an echo of earlier beliefs recast in the terminology of space/time. the manifest written by charles sirato signed also by miro, arp, duchamp, picabia and kandinsky) was published in paris by revue n + 1. he attends the olympic games that year to fulfill a photo and film commission, but leaves early traveling by to hungary to visit his brother. the reason this is mentioned is that it is his last trip back to hungary. moholy-nagy is commissioned by architecture department at harvard and museum of modern art to make the film, “the new architecture at the london zoo”, for the modern architecture exhibition in london.

1937 : upon invitation from the chicago association of arts and industries, he leaves london for the usa and the s.s. manhattan on june 30. his wife and two daughters join him in chicago in september. he is appointed the director of the new bauhaus, american school of design.

1938 : in june the new bauhaus is forced to close due to bankruptcy. he works intensely as a designer for several companies such as spiegel, inc.

1939 : with his own money and that of walter paepcke, president of the container corporation of america, he opens his new school. classes begin at the school of design in chicago at 247 east ontario street on february 22, with an enrollment of 47 students.

1940 : dr. alfred neumeyer invites moholy-nagy to hold a summer school at mills college, oakland, california.

1943 : begins work on vision in motion, the definitive statement of his pedagogical philosophy. he is appointed president of the chicago chapter of the hungarian-american committee for democracy.

1944 : in the spring the school of design changes it’s name to the institute of design, popularly known as i.d. he writes abstract of an artist, a brief autobiography with the third edition of the new vision in 1946.

1945 : working on experimental three-dimensional plexiglas sculptures; he also works with watercolor and ink. a few days after his 50th birthday he is diagnosed with a serious form of leukemia, his work pace however does not slow down.

1946 : a retrospective exhibition of his works is mounted february 12th by the modern art society of cincinnati and is held at the cincinnati museum of art. he obtains american citizenship on april 10 and dies november 24 at 2:30pm in a private chicago hospital.

1947 : posthumous publication of vision in motion. a memorial exhibition is held in may at the museum of non-objective painting, new york. this large memorial exhibition travels widely in the usa until 1950.