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‘Painting is directed by the heart through the eye. Photography is directed by the mind through the eye. But desire and love for the subject direct both mediums. One cannot replace the other’ – Man Ray
Man Ray had fled war-torn Europe during the summer of 1940, returning to America with just a single suitcase filled with a selection of Rayographs, drawings and watercolours, while the rest of his work remained in Paris. Settling in Hollywood the following year, the artist entered a period of intense creativity as he began to reflect upon his career to date, revisiting and reworking earlier compositions and subjects from his oeuvre. As he explained, it was here in California that he ‘could now concentrate on the long-range project of re-establishing myself as a painter. There was plenty to do. Besides the reconstruction of apparently lost works, I had sketches and notes for new ones which I hadn’t had time to realise in Paris’ (quoted in R. Penrose, Man Ray, London 1975, p. 149). Dating from 1940-1945, Acrobat appears to fall into this final category of innovative works, and reveals the direction of Man Ray’s thoughts at the height of his Hollywood years, as he returned to his explorations of pure geometric form as a means of expression. As with many of his abstract compositions of these years, Man Ray takes as his starting point a figurative motif, in this case the architecture of the human figure, seated on a slightly tilting surface, with their knees pulled up towards their chest. Reducing the figure to a series of flat planes, each filled with bright hues of colour, Man Ray explores a complex interplay of two- and three-dimensional form, figuration and abstraction, revealing the continued influence of Cubism and Orphism on his painterly vocabulary.
Post Lot Text
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 of Paintings of Man Ray, currently in preparation.
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Condition report
A Christie's specialist may contact you to discuss this lot or to notify you if the condition changes prior to the sale.
The condition of lots can vary widely and the nature of the lots sold means that they are unlikely to be in a perfect condition. Lots are sold in the condition they are in at the time of sale.
The canvas, stretcher and attachments are in generally good condition. The canvas is slightly wavy. The varnish is slightly yellowed. There are craquelures, some flaking and slightly tenting, to the brown passage, with some associated pinhead sized paint loss. There are circular craquelures to the blue passage in the lower left quadrant and in the brown passage in the upper right corner. There are drying craquelures to the two yellow passages, some slightly tenting, with some associated superficial paint losses showing the lighter yellow colour below. There are stabiel craquelures to the white passage in places. There is a discoloured cosmetic retouching visible in the lower centre at the lower end of the blue passage. Examination under ultraviolet light reveals the aforementioned retouching.
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Lot 5Sale 20927
AcrobatMan Ray (1890-1976)Estimate: EUR 70,000 - 100,000
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