Man Ray Auction Day

Man Ray (born Emmanuel Radnitzky) works are up for auction on July 3rd, in Paris via Sothebys. Here are a few of the offerings...

Nudes & Sphere, with an estimate of 7,000—10,000 EUR:

signed 'MR' and dated '40' (lower left), ink and wash on paper.

35,2 x 25,4 cm; 13 7/8 x 10 in.

Executed in 1940, probably prior to the artist's departure from Paris to settle in Hollywood as a refugee in his homeland, this drawing and a related oil of the same year entitled Disillusion, are reference to the turmoil and conflict of a war in Europe as events unfolded and Man Ray realised he had to flee. The composition portrays confusion and uncertainty with three nudes clutching a sphere representing the planet in its state of unrest.

Also up for auction is Man Ray's Seated Nude, with an estimate of 8,000—12,000 EUR:

signed 'Man Ray' and dated '1941' (lower right), gouache and brush and ink on paper. Executed in 1941.

35,5 x 25 cm; 13 7/8 x 9 7/8 in.

This is a gouache study of Juliet Browner, who was to become Man Ray's companion and later his wife in 1946. She was a professional dancer who had trained under Martha Graham in the 1930's in New York.

More information on Juliet (Browner) Man Ray is here; cemetery photos here.


Perhaps my favorite, Les Mains Libres bronzes: ten bronzes created in 1971 from Man Ray drawings for a collection of Paul Eluard poems published as Les Mains Libres in 1937.As Grace Glueck wrote in The New York Times in '97 the bronzes include:

...an ''imaginary portrait'' of the Marquis de Sade in bronze (1971).

To the Surrealists, de Sade (1740-1814), the recorder of kinky sex and the writer of antireligious tracts, was a revered iconoclast. No likeness of him existed, and Man Ray felt free to create several. The bronze bust is a striking image that resembles at once Andre Breton, the founder of Surrealism, and Benjamin Franklin.

Its fat face and shoulders are scored with an irregular grid that simulates the stone facades of the institutions, especially the Bastille, where de Sade spent years imprisoned for scandalous behavior. It's not inappropriate that the artist devoted this much attention to de Sade, because, as the writer Arturo Schwarz notes in his book on Man Ray, a streak of sadism runs through his work.

Some drawings on view were prompted by Man Ray's dreams. They, in turn, inspired poems by the French Surrealist Paul Eluard. The poems and drawings were paired in the book ''Les Mains Libres'' (1937). A hand creeping around the side of a mountain, a naked couple sheltered by a giant rose, a bridge with a nude sprawled across its top: these are better examples of Surrealist fancy than of the draftsman's art. Today they have a hothouse charm that heightens their appeal.

The lot of bronzes has an estimate of 50,000—70,000 EUR; so I can show them to you knowing that I'll not be bidding against you -- nor any one else. Sadly, I'll be doing no bidding at this auction at all.