MAN RAY (1890–1976)

Mathematical Object, 1934–1936

Details

MAN RAY (1890–1976)
Mathematical Object, 1934–1936
gelatin silver print, mounted on board
stamped 'MAN RAY - 8 RUE/DU VAL-DE-GRACE/PARIS 5e - FRANCE/DANTON 92 - 25' [Manford M9] and credited, numbered '36.1591 O' in pencil (verso); stamped 'PHOTOGRAPH BY MAN RAY' [Manford M22] and titled in unknown hand in ink (mount, verso); credited, titled and dated on affixed gallery label (frame backing)
image/sheet: 9 1/8 x 11 3/4 in. (23.2 x 30 cm.)
mount: 20 x 15 1/8 in. (50.8 x 38.4 cm.)

Provenance

The Collection of Juliet Man Ray;
Robert Miller Gallery, New York;
Galerie Montaigne, Paris;
acquired from the above by the present owner.

Literature

Arturo Schwarz, Man Ray Rigour of Imagination, Rizzoli, New York, 1977, p. 99.
Exhibition catalogue, Perpetual Motif: The Art of Man Ray, National Museum of American Art Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C. 1994, p. 301.
Collection de photographies du Musée national d'art moderne, Photographies 1905-1948, Editions du Centre Pompidou, Paris, 1997, p. 324.
Alain Sayag and Emmanuelle de L’Ecotais, May Ray: La Photographie a l’Envers, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, 1998, p. 234.
Exhibition catalogue, Photographies de Man Ray, The Bunkamura Museum of Art, Tokyo, 2002, p. 29.
Wendy A. Grossman and Edouard Sebline (eds.), Man Ray Human Equations, A Journey from Mathematics to Shakespeare, The Phillips Collection, Washington D. C., 2016, p. 176.
Katherine Ware and Manfred Heiting, Man Ray, TASCHEN, New York, 2017, p. 141.

Exhibited

New York, The Museum of Modern Art, Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism, December 9, 1936–January 17, 1937, nos. 629–643.
New York, Robert Miller Gallery, Man Ray Mathematical Objects, May 3–June 30, 1983.

Brought to you by

Rebecca Jones

rjones@christies.com +1 212 636 2330

Lot Essay

The present image depicts sections of two Villarceau circles, a mathematical proof from 1891. This form is the result of dividing two three-dimensional circles at an angle. In his painting, titled Measure for Measure, Man Ray created the illusion of the form’s negative space, above and below (Man Ray Human Equations, p. 201).

As with Lot 127, the present lot is mounted on black board and was exhibited in the 1936 Fantastic Art Dada Surrealism exhibition at Museum of Modern Art, New York. Both lot 127 and this print were loaned directly from the artist.

More from The Face of the Century: Photographs from a Private Collection

View All