Le fer rouge

Le fer rouge is a reconsideration of one of Man Ray’s first forays into object-making, Cadeau (1921). Inspired initially by Marcel Duchamp’s readymades, Man Ray took a vintage flat-iron and added tacks to the flat side as a gift for composer Erik Satie. In the words of Roland Penrose, a friend to Man Ray and the Jacobses: “By this simple adjustment, the flat-iron had forfeited its former identity and become a symbol of nonsense and inutility, a classical example of the disturbing effect provoked by all such creations of Man Ray. We are delighted by the sly humour and perplexed by the radical change in identity that has been produced by such slight means” (quoted in Man Ray, New York, 1989, p. 71).

Man Ray and Roz developed a close friendship and frequently visited one another on either side of the Atlantic. An accomplice in creative experimentation, Roz was much more than a collector or patron of the arts. On one of her trips to Paris, Man Ray and Roz were walking around the Left Bank ducking into various antique shops when the artist became struck by inspiration and purchased a group of flat-irons. She asked him what he was going to do with all of them and Man Ray replied, “you’ll see.” Shortly thereafter, he painted the bottoms red and named them Le fer rouge (The Red Hot Iron). These formerly functional objects were thus transformed into a visual play on words. Over time, Roz and Mel would also amass their own collection of vintage flat-irons, one of which would later sit on each step of the staircase in their apartment. A selection of Roz’s flatirons are included in the accompanying The Surrealist World of Rosalind Gersten and Melvin Jacobs Online Sale.