Man Ray

hinged to board, 1935-36

Collection of Juliet Man Ray, the photographer's widow

Sotheby's London, Man Ray: Paintings, Objects, Photographs: Property from the Estate of Juliet Man Ray, the Man Ray Trust and the Family of Juliet Man Ray, 22-23 March 1995, Sale 5173, Lot 27

Acquired from the above by a private collector

Christie's New York, 20 October 2003, Sale 1287, Lot 78

New York, International Center of Photography, Man Ray/Bazaar Years: A Fashion Retrospective, September – November 1990, and traveling thereafter to Barbican Art Gallery, London; Circulo de Bellas Artes, Madrid; Fotografie Forum, Frankfurt; Galleria Carla Sozzani, Milan; Hong Kong Arts Centre; Kartause Ittingen, Warth Switzerland; and Musée des Arts de la Mode, Paris, through 1993

 

Willis Hartshorn and Merry Foresta, Man Ray in Fashion (International Center of Photography, 1990), p. 24 (this print)

Other prints of this image:

Jean-Hubert Martin, Man Ray Photographs (London, 1982), p. 42

Man Ray, Self-Portrait (Boston, 1988), p. 208

This photograph is on double-weight paper with a matte surface. The paper has a pleasing warm green tonality, and remarkably deep blacks. It is a bravura print in which the depth of the blacks is offset by the delicate rendering of the highlights on the plaster forms. The print is trimmed to the image and has lovely object quality. The print is in essentially excellent condition. There is age-appropriate silvering in the dark areas at the periphery of the image. The print is hinged firmly at the top two corners to a piece of modern black board. There is a tiny loss of emulsion to the upper right corner, visible only upon close examination.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

The photograph offered here is one of a series by Man Ray in which his painting, A L'Heure de l'Observatoire—Les Amoureux, figures prominently.  This photograph was likely taken in Man Ray's Rue du Val-de-Grace studio in 1935 or 1936, before the then-new A L'Heure de l'Observatoire—Les Amoureux was sent to New York for Alfred Barr's groundbreaking Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art in late 1936.  The painting was featured prominently in that show where it was seen by legendary cosmetics entrepreneur Helena Rubinstein, who asked to display the painting at her 5^th Avenue beauty emporium, a request with which Man Ray was happy to comply.  The painting is one of Man Ray's most celebrated works and was a personal favorite as well.  Although it adheres to the tenets of Surrealism in its dream-like rendering of disembodied lips hovering in the sky, the painting defied Surrealism's general rejection of sentiment in that it carried a great deal of personal meaning for the artist. 

As with so many of Man Ray's photographs, the present image is more complex than it initially seems.  What could at first be read simply as a photographic document of a corner of Man Ray's studio is actually layered with allusions to his work and personal life.  The lips that feature so prominently in the painting are those of his ex-lover, Lee Miller, with whom he had broken painfully in 1932.  The chess set in the lower left portion of the image was created by Man Ray himself in the 1920s (he would design others in subsequent decades), and may serve as a reference to Man Ray's chess-obsessed mentor, friend, and collaborator Marcel Duchamp.  The plaster cast of the bust is an object that Man Ray used in a number of photographs in the 1930s, including the risqué Venus restaurée in which it is suggestively bound in cord.  The classical head appears, sometimes with painted lips and eyes, in several of Man Ray's personal and commercial photographs, including one he produced for Wrigley's chewing gum.  Man Ray was well ahead of his time in introducing a puckish self-referentiality in his photographs, and this image in particular embodies a nearly Post-Modern sensibility, though it was made well before Modernism had run its full course. 

The other images from this series were almost certainly made at the same time as the photograph offered here.  All are taken from the same, or nearly the same, vantage point, and share the same essential composition.  The shifting element in each is the form on the sofa.  Two variants feature a nude woman in the place of the plaster casts seen in this image.  In another, Man Ray himself occupies this position.  In another, the sofa is completely unoccupied (and the chess set devoid of pieces).  In yet a sixth variant, a clothed model reclines in languid elegance with one arm raised toward the painting.  It is this last image that is  reproduced in the November 1936 issue of Harper's Bazaar, where it serves the dual purpose of illustrating their notice for the Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism exhibition, and touting the clothes worn by the model.  The illustration is captioned, 'Against his surrealist painting "Observatory Time – The Lovers," Man Ray photographs a beach coat by Heim of white silk printed with little brown foxes.'

This series of images is reproduced as a sequential motif on the plate-list pages in Man Ray: Photographs  (Thames and Hudson, 1982, pp. 42, 87, 130, 183, and 210). 

Sotheby's wishes to thank Steven Manford for his assistance in researching this photograph.