During Horacio Coppola's studies at the Bauhaus, he only produced 18 photographs. They are direct results of Walter Peterhans’s teaching: still lifes that analyse various textiles and textures, placing them in unexpected combinations and joining them together to give them new meaning, supplemented with ironical titles that give the whole thing a surreal element. In the photograph ‘Winter Help’, dating from 1932, Coppola brings together essential clothing items for the cold season – a hat, gloves and scarf. The way they are arranged creates a kind of portrait: the scarf becomes a head of hair flying wildly upwards, the round hat forms the head, and the gloves look like an outsized moustache. In addition to the ironic effect of this male portrait, the scene is lit in such a way that it shows the various thread structures in the textiles — both criteria on which Peterhans placed great value.
[AG 2015]
The Photograph has been retrospectvely signed and entitled verso by Coppola with ink: "WINTER HILFE/ Berlin, December 1932", signed: "Horacio Coppola", tagged: "HORACIO COPPOLA/ BAUHAUS"
