Man Ray

Poupée, c. 1924
Silver gelatin print
6w x 8 1/2h

Estimate: €20,000 - 30,000

Man Ray, 2009, p. 71

This print is in very good condition. The corners are slightly worn, with a light crease near the upper edge at the centre, with traces of light scratches visible in raking light only and with a tiny stain near the upper left corner.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Erik Satie’s short comic opera Geneviève de Brabantpremiered at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Paris on 17 May 1926. The opera was unusual in that the acting parts were played by marionettes. The present photograph shows the marionette created for the title role of the opera based on a medieval legend of Geneviève of Brabant who is falsely accused of adultery and banished to live in a cave in the forest.

Dolls and mannequins were frequent sources of fascination for Dada and Surrealist artists. Considered as modern manifestations of the marvellous, intriguing entities caught between object and human, they provided inspiration as evocative of technological progress and the uncanny doubling of the human figure. Dolls occupy an important place in the work of many Dada and Surrealist artists, from Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Raoul Hausmann and Hannah Höch to Hans Bellmer and Man Ray, whether as objects of fascination, revulsion or fantasy. In 1938, the highlight of the Exposition internationale du surréalisme in Paris were the shop mannequins specially dressed for the occasion by the Surrealist artists (see lot 4).

Man Ray’s own engagement in the theme dates to as early as 1917 in his cliché-verre Automaton, depicting three robotic musicians. Around the time he created the present work, Man Ray made his first photographs incorporating a wooden artist’s mannequin, a motif to which he returned in 1947 for his series of compositions Mr. and Mrs. Woodman (lot 3). These works, including the present photograph, strive to exploit our fascination with forms that transcend the boundary between the inanimate and the animate.