Rotary Demisphere (Precision Optics), c. 1925

During the 1920s Marcel Duchamp, oftentimes together with Man Ray, experimented with depictions of motion and time. The Rotary Demisphere, represented in the Man Ray image offered here, was an elaborate apparatus comprising of a hemisphere fixed on a flat disc covered with black velvet, both of which were covered by a glass dome that was attached with a copper ring engraved, 'Rrose Sélavy et moi esquivons les ecchymoses des esquimaux aux mots exquis.' The Demisphere rotated when activated by a small electric motor at the foot of the metal stand. Duchamp gave this enigmatic sculptural work to his friend, the novelist Henri Pierre Roché. The inscription on the verso of this print is not Roché's signature but indicates that the print may have also belonged to him. The Demisphere is now in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

This print was probably used for the cover of a 1954 history of French Cinema which included Man Ray's works in film. The crop marks on the recto of the print correspond with the variant used for that book cover.