MAN RAY (1890-1976)

Lot 74
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Estimation :
100000 - 120000 EUR
Result with fees
Result : 266 500EUR
MAN RAY (1890-1976)
Le Violon d'Ingres, 1924 Unique triptych, circa 1970 3 serigraphs on plastic (1 black and white, 1 blue, 1 pink) signed in the image The black and white version is signed in ink on the print and exists in 3 copies. The blue version exists in 2 copies. The pink version is unique. 65 x 55 cm each The Violin of Ingres, 1924 Single triptych, circa 1970 3 serigraphs on plastic (1 black and white, 1 blue, 1 pink) signed on picture The black and white version is signed in ink on the print and exists in 3 copies. The blue version exists in 2 copies. The pink version is unique. 25.6 x 21.66 inch. each A certificate of authenticity may be issued to the buyer by Emmanuelle de l'Ecotais Note: There are several versions of Le Violon d'Ingres : a first version, on which the gills are drawn by hand is published in 1924 (collection of the Centre Pompidou), two versions in which the gills are made by photogram around 1930 (one of which is not located but published in 1933, and the other sold on 14.05.2022 at Christie's in New York), a version transformed into a surrealist object with the addition of four violin strings (circa 1962-1965, three copies), and an edition made in 1971 from one of the photograms. These serigraphs are now a discovery. With Le Violon d'Ingres, Man Ray is one of the few artists of the twentieth century to have succeeded in signing an image that now belongs to the collective imagination. The pose that Kiki takes, the turban that embraces her hair, irresistibly evokes the Valpinçon Bather (1808) or one of the characters of Ingres' Turkish Bath (1862); but there is no trickery here, the photograph was overloaded with two lines of ink by manual intervention, as was LHOOQ, Marcel Duchamp's Mustachioed Mona Lisa. But Man Ray's intervention is more skilful and creates a visual pun here. The two gills, originally drawn in Indian ink on the model's back, remind us that Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1780-1867) was, in his spare time, an avid violinist. The popular expression that serves as the title of the work takes on a completely different meaning here, since Man Ray suggests, without ambiguity, that his Violon d'Ingres is Kiki's body. Man Ray had been struck by her beauty, which he considered worthy of inspiring any academic painter. The perfect oval of her face, her wide-set eyes, her long neck, her high, firm breasts, her slim waist and above all her blossoming body suggest both the Ingresque reference and the visual pun. Probably made around 1970 from the photogram version (the same as the one used for the 1971 edition), these unpublished versions offer a vision of the work updated in the light of modernity. Inspired by Pop Art and Andy Warhol's famous silkscreens, which Man Ray met on several occasions, the large-format colored version on plastic proves once again, if proof were needed, that Man Ray retained his inventive spirit even at the end of his life. His collaboration with Luciano Anselmino from 1967 onwards is no doubt not unrelated to the appearance of this new work. In his Galleria Il Fauno in Turin, Luciano exhibited all the great artists of the time, including Andy Warhol. Anselmino even organized a joint exhibition on the two artists (Man Ray - Andy Warhol, Galleria Il Fauno, October 1974). The previous year, Warhol had taken a Polaroid portrait of Man Ray in New York, which he then used for a well-known silkscreen. The links between the two artists are therefore multiple. For Man Ray, the use of color was far from being a novelty, since he even invented an original technique in the 1930s. As early as 1932, he produced certain images in several versions, black and white and color, as for example for Jacqueline Goddard (see Man Ray, Delpire, 2015, on the cover and Man Ray retrospective in Japan, 1996, p.99). Finally, his ability to use certain works to create new ones is a characteristic of his work (from a photograph to an object, such as Apple and Screw (1931), or inversely from an object to a photograph, such as Selfportrait (1917). As far as Le Violon d'Ingres is concerned, several versions, sometimes quite different, are well known (photograph, photogram, object, but also print), to which we must now add this Pop version. There are several versions of Le Violon d'Ingres: a first version, in which the sound holes are drawn by hand, was published in 1924 (Centre Pompidou collection), two versions in which the sound holes are made by photogram around 1930 (one of which has not been located but was published in 1933, and the other which sold on May 14, 2022 at Christie's in New Y
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