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MAN RAY (American, 1890-1976) NOIRE ET BLANCHE signature and date "MAN RAY '26" inscribed in neg...

Currency:USD Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:NA Estimated At:375,000.00 - 450,000.00 USD
MAN RAY (American, 1890-1976) NOIRE ET BLANCHE signature and date MAN RAY '26 inscribed in neg...
MAN RAY (American, 1890-1976) NOIRE ET BLANCHE signature and date "MAN RAY '26" inscribed in negative lower right recto vintage gelatin silver print 85/8 x 107/8 in. (21.9 x 49.6 cm) 1926 ESTIMATE: - $375,000-450,000 PROVENANCE Juliet Man Ray, Paris Zabriskie Gallery, NEW YORK & Paris Jill Quasha, NEW YORK Allen Frumkin Gallery Photographs, Inc., CHICAGO Private Collection, NEW YORK LITERATURE "Visage de Nacre et Masque d'Ébène," VOGUE [Paris], vol. 7, no. 5 ( May 1, 1926), p. 37 (illustrated) "Man Ray: <<Noire et Blanche>>," VARIÉTÉS, vol. 1, no. 3, (July 15, 1928), 1st p. of plates after p. 154 (illustrated) Pierre Migennes, "Les Photographies de Man Ray," ART ET DÉCORATION, vol. 54, no. 5 (November 1928), pp. 154-160 (Noire et blanche illustrated on p. 154 with inscribed signature and date) MAN RAY: PHOTOGRAPHIES 1920-1934, Hartford/ Paris, 1934, pl. 44 (illustrated) PHOTOGRAPHS BY MAN RAY: 105 WORKS, 1920-1934, New York, 1979, p. 44 (illustrated) Rosalind Krauss and Jane Livingston, L'AMOUR FOU: PHOTOGRAPHY AND SURREALISM, New York, 1985, p. 138, fig. 123 (illustrated) Man Ray, SELF-PORTRAIT, New illustrated edition, Boston, 1988, p. 118 (illustrated) Merry Foresta, et al, PERPETUAL MOTIF: THE ART OF MAN RAY, Washington, D.C., 1988, pl. 164, pp. 192-193 (illustrated) MAN RAY, Photo Poche no. 33, Paris, 1988, pl. 42 (illustrated) Ronny Van de Velde, MAN RAY 1890-1976, Ghent, 1994, pl. 52, pp. 40-41 (illustrated twice) Emmanuelle de l'Écotais and Alain Sayag, eds., MAN RAY: LA PHOTOGRAPHIE à L'ENVERS, Paris, 1998, p. 12 (illustrated) Emmanuelle de l'Écotais and Alain Sayag, eds., MAN RAY: PHOTOGRAPHY AND ITS DOUBLE, Corte Madera, California, 1998, p. 12 (illustrated) Ned Rifkin, et al, CHORUS OF LIGHT: PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE SIR ELTON JOHN COLLECTION, Atlanta, 2000, p. 76 (illustrated with inscribed signature and date) Manfred Heiting, ed., MAN RAY: 1890-1976, Munich, 2000, p. 39 (illustrated with inscribed signature and date) WORLD WITHOUT END: PHOTOGRAPHY AND THE 20TH CENTURY, Sydney, 2000, p. 84 (illustrated) Hans-Michael Koetzle, PHOTO ICONS: PETITE HISTOIRE DE LA PHOTO, 1827-1926, Cologne, 2002, pp. 180-185 (illustrated in negative on pp. 180-181) It has been said that Man Ray made this photograph for VOGUE. As published in the May 1, 1926, issue (see illus.), it appears to be entirely gratuitous. The photograph is accompanied by the title, "Visage de nacre et masque d'ébène" (mother of pearl face and ebony mask), and a brief poetic text about the evolution of the species being led by women. It is not an article about cosmetics or hairstyles, nor is it about African art or the photography of Man Ray. Man Ray was considered a fashionable photographer. The magazine had already prepared their readers by publishing an article about him and his photograms two months earlier. Kiki, with her pearly white complexion and oval face, literally embodied the height of current style. VOGUE and other fashion magazines of the time were full of illustrations of such long oval faces. To mimic the shape and contrast its color, Man Ray used the West African Baoulé mask loaned to him by M. Georges Sakier. African sculpture had inspired artists since at least the beginning of the century. By the mid-twenties, interest in African art and culture had reached a broader public. Critics and historians have commented about this photograph and related the black and white theme to the essential nature of black and white photography with its use of positive and negative. Man Ray made some negative prints of this photograph at some undetermined date that have been paired with the positive and have fueled this discourse. More astute, perhaps, especially in light of the short text accompanying the photograph, are references to race, contrasting the white European with the black African. The text suggests that the magazine editors possessed a retrograde concept of racial equality as it suggested that the white woman is the most highly evolved out of the "mystery filled past." Man Ray was confronted with the problem of juxtaposing these two faces. He tried at least two other versions that are less successful. More of Kiki's body is visible in both variants, thus distracting from the essential contrast of the two heads. By placing Kiki's head prone on the table top, it recalls some of the sculptural heads by Brancusi resting on a pedestal. Brancusi was a friend of Man Ray and even studied photography with him for a while. Examination of the original unsigned and unretouched glass-plate negative in the Man Ray archives at the Pompidou Centre in Paris reveals that the lighting was a bit flat. Man Ray retouched the print to make the highlights on Kiki's ear and cheek more prominent. At some point after publication in VOGUE, and before the photograph was published in ART ET DÉCORATION magazine in 1928, Man Ray increased the highlight on the ear and photographed the print to make a copy negative. In order to indicate that this is his preferred authorized version, he signed the copy negative itself by scratching away the emulsion. This signature is visible in the reproduction in ART ET DÉCORATION. It is this enhanced and authorized negative that Man Ray used to make subsequent prints. Only a small number of prints of this image are recorded. These include: the first print, with retouching, formerly in the Bokelberg collection, now in a private collection; another print in the permanent collection of The Museum of Modern Art, New York (formerly in the collection of James Thrall Soby); prints from the signed negative: Elton John Collection (positive and negative versions); a print formerly in the collection of Jacques Doucet; a print formerly in the collection of Kiki herself; and a further print given by Juliet Man Ray to close personal friends. The exquisite photograph offered here is the only known example printed on fine Japanese paper.
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