When the newly emigrated László Moholy-Nagy encountered Chicago’s exhilarating built environment and its exceptional space of commerce—with its framework for the production, distribution, and movement of vast quantities of goods—he had already been evoking, from his earliest days in 1920s Berlin, the rationalization of industry for art. In Chicago, Moholy re-instigated the primacy of the 3D object in his practice. This lecture by Robin Schuldenfrei of the Courtauld Institute of Art seeks to understand Moholy’s engagement with Chicago, and the US, by tracing a long arc across Moholy’s investigations in ephemeral surface effects and the materiality of industry. Liesl Olson, Director of Chicago Studies at the Newberry Library, moderates the discussion.