Man Ray

Julien Levy, New York (acquired from the artist and sold : Sotheby's, New York, 4 November 1981, lot 21)
Iolas Gallery, New York (acquired at the above sale)
Acquired from the above

New York, The Daniel Gallery, Man Ray: An exhibition of selected drawings and paintings accomplished during the period 1913-19, 1919, no. 17 (titled Perpetual Motion)
New York, The Daniel Gallery, Opening Exhibition, 1920-21, no. 29
Paris, La Librairie Six, Exposition Dada Man Ray, 1921, no. 5
Pasadena, Art Institute, Retrospective Exhibition 1913-1944, Paintings, Drawings, Watercolors, Photographs by Man Ray, 1944, no. 13
New York, Julien Levy Gallery, Man Ray, 1945, no. 3

Arturo Schwarz, Man Ray, The Rigour of Imagination, London, 1977, no. 45, illustrated p. 46 (before the inscription Anpor)

Executed on cream wove paper, not laid down. The airbrushed inks are well preserved with only very minor fading. There are pinholes in the corners of the upright rectangle form within the composition, where the artist pinned a stencil to create the desired forms. Close inspection reveals the faint trace of a minor humidity stain near the upper edge. There is some mild yellowing of the sheet consistent with normal aging and a few minuscule specks of foxing. On the reverse, there are traces of old glue in the corners and media marks as well as handling smudges inherent to the airbrush technique. Overall this work is in very good condition.
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Executed in New York in 1919, Anpor is a rare ‘airbrush painting’, dating from Man Ray’s New York Dada period. The entire series of seventeen airbrush works (three were destroyed) was created between 1917 and 1919; the majority are today owned by museums. Masterfully constructed, the composition importantly addresses themes central to the evolution of provocative Dada anti-art and to Man Ray's own innovative experimentations, employing new techniques and incorporating words and objects into compositions that continue to challenge the viewer to this day.

In the wake of Duchamp’s groundbreaking Readymade objects - the presentation of everyday unaltered or rectified objects as formal works of art - Man Ray’s paintings and works on paper 1917-20 increasingly featured everyday objects, presented in a similar fashion to a still life or a portrait. He would also employ such objects as stencils to create an image of the object for the composition. In Anpor, Man Ray portrays a propeller from a ventilation fan that he kept in his New York studio, clearly visible in a photograph of the artist taken in 1920 as well as in a 1921 silverpoint drawing by Man Ray (Israel Museum, Jerusalem). The twists and curves of the propeller blades would surely have inspired the artist to depict the rotary motion of the propeller, which in turn could be suggestive of the forms of the artist’s mobile and suspended object Lampshade of 1920, consisting of an unwound paper lampshade. 

Anpor was composed with the aid of a hand-held mechanical airbrush that projected small droplets of ink onto the surface of the paper in order to create a dynamic and spatial backdrop to the composition. Man Ray employed the technique he had learnt, to explore new territory: painting without a paintbrush: “I was planning something entirely new, had no need of an easal, brushes and the other paraphernalia of the traditional painter…The inspiration came from my office, where I had installed an airbrush outfit with air-pump and instruments to speed up some of the work which involved the laying down of large areas of color. This could be done much more quickly and smoothly than by hand. Where precise forms had to be contoured, stencils were cut out which protected the areas not to be sprayed. It was a process commonly unused in commercial work. I became quite adept in the use of the airbrush and wondered if I could use it for my personal painting… I installed a rented compressed air tank in my attic, bringing home the spray guns to work with... I worked in gouache on tinted and white card boards - the results were astonishing - they had a photographic quality, although the subjects were anything but figurative. Or rather, I'd start with a definite subject, something I had seen - nudes, an interior, a ballet with Spanish dancers, or even some odd miscellaneous objects lying about which I used as stencils, but the result was always a more abstract pattern. It was thrilling to paint a picture, hardly touching the surface - a purely cerebral act, as it were.” (Man Ray, Self Portrait, Boston and London, 1963, pp. 72 and 78-79).

The technique required precision and by varying the angle and intensity of the projected inks, Man Ray created compositions that displayed a delicate artistic quality. He often added finishing touches by hand using ink, pencil or gouache to highlight lines and forms.

The title Anpor is an invented word and typically, Man Ray left no explanation as to whether he intended for it to have any meaning. While Duchamp titled some of his works with literal words and intriguing phrases and Picabia often titled his paintings with undecipherable words, in Anpor, Man Ray offers no clues as to what the word implies, however, he provides another word that opens up the viewer’s imagination: ‘déshabillé’ (undressed or partly clothed). With this French word craftily inscribed into the composition by an American-born artist living in New York (and whose command of French at the time was little more than basic), the use of the French language comes as no surprise. Man Ray met and married Belgian poet Adon Lacroix (known as Donna) in 1914, however by 1919, the year in which Anpor was executed, their marriage was strained. In New York in 1915, Man Ray met both Duchamp and Picabia and they continued to see each other regularly whenever the French artists came to the city until Man Ray decided to depart for Paris in 1921. Duchamp's 'Large Glass' of 1915-23, otherwise known as The Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors, Even may also have triggered Man Ray to incorporate this spicy word into the present work.