Natural Painting

Details

MAN RAY (1890-1976)
Natural Painting
signed 'Man Ray' (lower right)
oil and acrylic on canvasboard
7 3⁄8 x 9 1⁄4 in. (18.8 x 23.6 cm.)
Painted circa 1958

Provenance

Acquired from the artist by the late owners.

Exhibited

New York, Mitchell-Innes & Nash, Concrete Works, June-July 2007, no. 8.

Further Details

Andrew Strauss and Timothy Baum of the Man Ray Expertise Committee have confirmed the authenticity of this work and that it will be included in the catalogue raisonné of the Paintings of Man Ray, currently in preparation.

Conditions of sale

Lot Essay

“I sought a new technique that would be more automatic as when a seed or sapling is planted and the forces of nature are counted on to do the rest. By spreading the colors according to the impulse of the moment, I abandoned brushes and palette knives, and applied pressure with other surfaces, withdrawing them to produce a variation of the Rorschach test. The results were astonishing, with details that could have been obtained only through long and meticulous labor by hand. I gave these productions the general title of Natural Paintings.”
- Man Ray (Self Portrait, Boston, 1988, p. 302)

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