Lot 50
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MAN RAY (1890–1976)

The Enigma of Isadore Ducasse, 1920

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Price Realised USD 6,930
Estimate
USD 10,000 - USD 15,000
Estimates do not reflect the final hammer price and do not include buyer's premium, any applicable taxes or artist's resale right. Please see the Conditions of Sale for full details.
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MAN RAY (1890–1976)

The Enigma of Isadore Ducasse, 1920

Price Realised USD 6,930
Register
Price Realised USD 6,930
Register
Details
MAN RAY (1890–1976)
The Enigma of Isadore Ducasse, 1920
gelatin silver print, printed 1951-1976.
initialed 'MR' and annotated 'EA' in ink (recto); stamped 'EPREUVE ORIGINALE / Atelier Man Ray/ PARIS in ink (verso)
image/sheet: 91⁄4 x 115⁄8 in. (23.4 x 29.5 cm.)
Literature
La Révolution surréaliste, December 1, 1924, no. 1, première année, p. 1 (preface).
Man Ray L’Immagine Fotografica, Edizioni La Biennale Di Venezia, Venezia, 1977, pl. 6.
Philippe Sers, MAN RAY / Objets de mon affection, Paris, 1983, p. 39, cat. no. 27.
Man Ray, Man Ray: 1890-1976, Harry N. Abrams, New York, 1995, pl. 9, p. 257.
Man Ray, Photographies de Man Ray, Tokyo Shimbun, Tokyo, 2002, p. 117.
Mason Klein, Alias Man Ray: The Art of Reinvention, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2009, fig 52, p. 50 (color variant).
Wendy A. Grossman and Andrew Strauss, Man Ray: Human Equations, Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern, 2015, fig. 93, p. 123.
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Lot Essay

Man Ray draws his inspiration for the creation of this object from Chants de Maldoror, an 1868-69 text by Comte de Lautréamont (Isidore Ducasse). His object, a sewing machine wrapped and tied is a direct result of the reading of this passage, 'lovely as the fortuitous encounter on a dissection table of a sewing machine and an umbrella.' Ducasse's writing was later embraced by André Breton as a classic Surrealist text. This work is stamped with Manford stamp M26, a later Paris stamp used between1951-1976, as noted in Steven Manford’s book, Behind the photo: the stamps of Man Ray, Paris, Collection Clémentine, 2009.
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