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Lot Essay
Man Ray's extraordinarily innovative and iconoclastic approach to art is perfectly encapsulated in Hermaphrodite. Executed in 1919, Hermaphrodite is one of a small number of important 'aerographs' the artist produced between 1917 and 1919. As one of Man Ray's early 'excursions into the unknown', the use of the mechanistic aerograph, or airbrush, marks a pivotal moment in his artistic development (Man Ray, Self Portrait, London, 1988, p. 66). Man Ray himself remarked that, 'this was a period of reaction to sensuous painting, leading into the dada spirit. If there was anything shocking to do, I wanted to be the first' (Man Ray, quoted in F. M. Naumann, Conversion to Modernism: the Early Work of Man Ray, London, 2003, p. 204).
Using stencils to create his aerographs, Man Ray employed a sculpture, also entitled Hermaphrodite and made in 1919, as the outline for the present picture's forms. Suspended in an oval, the twisting, abstracted figure composed of simplified shapes subverts the traditional genre of the nude in a manner reminiscent of George de Chirico's disquieting manichino paintings. The sexually ambiguous and indeterminate figure of the alchemical hermaphrodite appealed to both Dada and Surrealist artists as a mysterious figure capable of representing totality and sexual synthesis. The year before Hermaphrodite was executed, Alberto Savinio - de Chirico's brother - published his first book, Hermaphrodito and Francis Picabia published his Poèmes et dessins de la fille née sans mère which included Hermaphroditism. These works may have provided the inspiration for Man Ray's sculpture and the present aerograph.
Man Ray had frequently used airbrushes to lay down large areas of colour in his part-time job as a commercial designer, and this industrial tool suggested to him an exciting way of both liberating his own art from traditional pictorial techniques and illustrating the then-emergent machine aesthetic (see ibid., p. 187). The precise contours and linearity of the forms in Hermaphrodite, characteristic of those effects produced by the airbrush, attest to Man Ray's concern to depersonalise the work of art and to 'express an idea almost photographically' (Man Ray, quoted in ibid., p. 206) Indeed, the luminosity, subtle tonal gradations and ethereal quality of this monochromatic work foreshadow the more abstract effects Man Ray later achieved in his pioneering photographic 'rayographs' and 'solarisations'. As the artist recalled, 'When I discovered the airbrush, it was a revelation - it was wonderful to be able to paint a picture without touching the canvas; this was a pure cerebral activity. It was also like painting in 3-D... another thing I liked about it was the spontaneous character of the composition. The effect was obtained instantly and you couldn't correct it afterwards; it was like shooting with a gun, you either hit the mark or you don't! When I was to think of it, it was almost automatic painting. I was already trying to get away from painting in the traditional manner.' (Man Ray, quoted in A. Schwatz, May Ray: The Rigour of the Imagination, London, 1977, p. 39).
Using stencils to create his aerographs, Man Ray employed a sculpture, also entitled Hermaphrodite and made in 1919, as the outline for the present picture's forms. Suspended in an oval, the twisting, abstracted figure composed of simplified shapes subverts the traditional genre of the nude in a manner reminiscent of George de Chirico's disquieting manichino paintings. The sexually ambiguous and indeterminate figure of the alchemical hermaphrodite appealed to both Dada and Surrealist artists as a mysterious figure capable of representing totality and sexual synthesis. The year before Hermaphrodite was executed, Alberto Savinio - de Chirico's brother - published his first book, Hermaphrodito and Francis Picabia published his Poèmes et dessins de la fille née sans mère which included Hermaphroditism. These works may have provided the inspiration for Man Ray's sculpture and the present aerograph.
Man Ray had frequently used airbrushes to lay down large areas of colour in his part-time job as a commercial designer, and this industrial tool suggested to him an exciting way of both liberating his own art from traditional pictorial techniques and illustrating the then-emergent machine aesthetic (see ibid., p. 187). The precise contours and linearity of the forms in Hermaphrodite, characteristic of those effects produced by the airbrush, attest to Man Ray's concern to depersonalise the work of art and to 'express an idea almost photographically' (Man Ray, quoted in ibid., p. 206) Indeed, the luminosity, subtle tonal gradations and ethereal quality of this monochromatic work foreshadow the more abstract effects Man Ray later achieved in his pioneering photographic 'rayographs' and 'solarisations'. As the artist recalled, 'When I discovered the airbrush, it was a revelation - it was wonderful to be able to paint a picture without touching the canvas; this was a pure cerebral activity. It was also like painting in 3-D... another thing I liked about it was the spontaneous character of the composition. The effect was obtained instantly and you couldn't correct it afterwards; it was like shooting with a gun, you either hit the mark or you don't! When I was to think of it, it was almost automatic painting. I was already trying to get away from painting in the traditional manner.' (Man Ray, quoted in A. Schwatz, May Ray: The Rigour of the Imagination, London, 1977, p. 39).