ABSTRACT
Sibyl Moholy-Nagy (1903–1971) author of several books and many articles about architecture and the city, never declared herself a feminist. Rather than taking up the common cause of women, she thought of herself as an exceptional person who had masculine ambitions and hence could not be satisfied with what came ‘natural’ to other women – the care for household, children and family. One could nevertheless assess her work as a continuous engagement with modernism in the arts and architecture, in which she denounced technology and capitalism as driving forces of modernity while embracing the ‘feminine’ other of modernity, by advocating values such as concern for the city and for the environment. This chapter traces the paradoxes and contradictions of Sibyl Moholy-Nagy’s positioning in her dealings with modern architecture and the environment, tying them in with ongoing contemporary discussions on the nature of feminism and the gendered character of modernism. Is it possible to recognise in her position an early and unarticulated version of what we would now call ecofeminism?
