Man Ray

Louis Aragon, Paris
Jean Ristat, Paris
Acquired from the above by the present owner

These prints are in overall good to very good condition, with silvering to the edges of the two inside prints only visible in raking light and silvering across the first print. There are some superficial surface scratches across all the prints. The card is slightly time stained and there are some small spots of foxing in places. The card is lightly undulating and there are some minor creases to the edges.
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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."

Conceived and assembled in 1931, Man Ray’s “reportage” is a provocative and irreverent parody of the type of photographic reports that appeared in the mainstream press at the time of the Exposition Coloniale Internationale. Held in Paris in 1931 this vast exhibition was a demonstration of colonial policy, displaying the diverse cultures and immense resources of French colonial possessions.

From the colophon, we know Man Ray’s reportage was sent to a select group of his friends, among them the Surrealists Louis Aragon (the present example), André Breton, Robert Desnos and René Char. Breton and Aragon were vociferous in their protests against the Exposition Coloniale, both on political grounds and because they believed that African art and myth bypassed conscious, rational thought to reach into the fertile unconscious. They responded by mounting an alternative exhibition called La Vérité sur les colonies (The Truth about the Colonies).

The satirical tone of Man Ray’s portfolio, intended for a select few, is announced by the cover photograph showing a group of African herdsmen tending livestock. Visible in the midst of the cattle are unlikely objects including a flat cap and a disproportionate ladder, illusions created by Man Ray using the photomontage technique.

The next two photographs, presented on a folio, while obscure in their relationship to the theme of the colonial exhibition, are far more arresting. The composition of the provocative image of a handheld hairdryer brought in close and dangerous proximity to a woman’s sex is echoed by the electric lamp caught amongst the erotic and prickly forms of cacti leaves. Such combinations of man-made everyday objects with the human anatomy recall the Surrealists’ adhesion to the poet Lautréaumont’s dictum in ‘Chants des Maldoror’ : “Beautiful…as the fortuitous encounter of a sewing machine and an umbrella on a dissecting table”.

Man Ray and the Surrealists’ interest in erotica in the early 1930s was greatly influenced by the writings of the Marquis de Sade. While it may be observed that the composition of the woman’s legs is certainly reminiscent of Gustave Courbet’s outrageous 1866 painting L’Origine du monde (Musée d’Orsay, Paris), whether the juxtaposition of this image with its pair can provide clues to the artist’s intent is left for the viewer to determine.