MAN RAY (1890-1976)

1929

Details

MAN RAY (1890-1976)
1929
Brussels: Éditions de la Revue Variétés, 1929, first edition, 4to. volume; 4 photolithographs, tipped to Montval paper; each 6 5/8 x 4 7/8in. (17.2 x 12.7cm.) or the reverse; text by Benjamin Péret and Louis Aragon; stamped number '129' from the edition of 215; uncut pages; original printed wrappers

Literature

Parr and Badger, The Photobook: A History, Vol. II, Phaidon, 2006, p. 138

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Lot Essay

This is the first edition of Man Ray's notorious, erotic book. It is an extraordinarily audacious work and testament to the nascent Surrealist movement's preoccupation with sex. 1929 was published at the instigation of Péret and Aragon, two pioneers of literary Surrealism, to raise funds for Variétés and its editor Edouard Mesens, later the doyen of London Surrealists. Aragon proposed the idea to Man Ray, showing him a sample of the erotic poetry for which he wanted illustrations and Ray gave him a sheaf of photographs of himself with his lover, Kiki de Montparnasse.

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