Man Ray - Ets: La mysticite charnelle de Rene Crevel (nette lijst!) - Sold

Framed etching on arches paper (folded in half), by Man Ray. Title: La mysticite charnelle de Rene Crevel .Number: 73/100. Dimensions incl frame: H55 x W47cm. Dimensions representation: H36 x W27.5cm. The work is signed at the bottom right by the artist. The authenticity of this work is fully guaranteed. A certificate of authenticity can be emailed upon request.

Frames: Damages to frames are not described. If a work is framed behind glass, the glass is broken, this will be mentioned




Emmanuel Radnitsky, better known as Man Ray, was born in Philadelphia. He was one of the younger artists who were active in the Dada movement. Later in his career he also developed into a central figure within Surrealism.


Man Ray was trained in painting at the Modern School in New York. After seeing the 1913 Armory Show, he falls under the spell of the European avant-garde. As a young artist in New York, he was subsequently supported in his fledgling career by leading French artists such as Francis Picabia and Marcel Duchamp. In 1921 he settled in Paris, disappointed by the lack of the artistic revolution that Dada should have brought about in New York.

In Paris he was introduced by Picabia and Duchamp among other members of the Paris dada group. He will focus on making three-dimensional objects and assemblages. One of his first objects is the remarkable artwork The Gift (1921), which elaborates on Duchamp's concept of the readymade. In this case it was an iron, which he drastically modified in its functionality by attaching nails to the ironing part. Another sculpture by him is Indestructible Object (or Object to be Destroyed) , see image. This is not the photo of the original work from 1923, by the way. That no longer exists. Originally the work was called Object to be Destroyed , which was taken a bit too literally by a number of students! The artist later reconstructed it with some minor adjustments, including the changed title, and re-dated it to '1923'.

His photograms, photographs taken without using a camera, were also created in Paris. As befits the line of Dada, he discovered this technique spontaneously, at a chance moment. In his dark room, where normally previously shot photos can be developed manually, he placed some objects on light-sensitive paper and turned on the light for a short moment. In this way an alienating, abstract print was created, which he himself called 'Rayographs'.

Because of his experimental photos, he was bombarded as the official photographer of Surrealism, the art movement he joined from 1925. The artist became an established figure in the avant-garde world of Paris and produced portraits of dozens of prominent artists. In 1940, at the outbreak of the Second World War, he returns to New York. Man Ray is primarily known in art history as a photographer, but he also focused on painting, sculpture, experimental dada films, literature and architecture during his long and productive career.