Lot Essay
This unique triptych is comprised of two uncommonly large vintage prints, in themselves embellished with cut paper collage and ink drawing, framing a smaller and later print. The work hung for many years in its place of honor behind the enlarger in Man Ray's darkroom in the studio on the rue Férou. Later Juliet Man Ray would claim that her husband had placed it there as an unfailing source of inspiration.
For an artist whose work was at the center of Dada and Surrealism, the theme of the elusive passage of time was as concrete an element of his palette as film, light or paint. As early as 1920, Man Ray was concerned with the depiction of motion and time, to which his experiments with Duchamp, the Rotary Glass Plates (1920), the Rotary Demisphere (1925) and the later Rotorelief Disques Optiques (1935) testify.
Perhaps first conceived as a diptych, the addition of the later print of Demain completes the piece. With his own - and Duchamp's - advancing years only confirmed by the passing away of many close friends and peers, a growing preoccupation with time would seem obvious. Timothy Baum, the leading expert on Man Ray, has confirmed, based on conversations he had with the artist, that the work was completed in 1965 when the later print of Demain was added. This year coincided with the artist's 75th birthday, and the completion was "perhaps rendered out of respect for a wistfulness that this level of life and this age plateau would dictate".
The printing, use of collage and ink drawing on Hier and Aujourd'hui firmly mark these as works from the 1930s. Similar treatment is found on other important works of the period, such as the satirical Monument á D. A. F. de Sade of 1933 which depicts, quite simply, an androgenous buttocks framed within a line drawing of an upside down cross or crucifix. The print of Demain, executed in 1965, was intended for a limited edition multiple, published in 1967 by Arturo Schwarz. In this form, the print was inserted in a plastic sleeve, curled into a cylinder and mounted to a base. (See Christie's London, 23 June 1993, The Kodicek Collection of Modern Pictures, lot 321.) This particular print is outside of the edition of six and two artist's proofs.
Although Demain on its own is representative of Man Ray's work at the time, Hier, Demain, Aujourd'hui goes beyond what is purely iconographic. It is a masterwork as only Man Ray could imagine; enigmatic and complex, replete with historical reference and unique in its approach and execution. The addition of Demain so many years later is a reflective act, moving towards the culmination of a long and fruitful career. The vintage print collages bear witness to the artist's contempt for the commonplace and the expected.
The application of the simplified forms and primary colors of the cut paper may recall Constructivist collage. However, unlike Popova for example, Man Ray is interested in the world beyond the frame that goes beyond line, form and color - the world of image, psychology and desire.
In Man Ray: The Rigour of Imagination, Arturo Schwarz suggests that the title of Demain implies eternal youth. He then asks of the picture "Does Man Ray wish to suggest that perfection lies in the bliss of sex, and/or, does he wish to remind us of Paradise when nakedness was our natural state?". (op. cit. p. 159) The radiating lines and spots of color, in their planetary orbiting of the model's body recalls another legendary artist whose work was preoccupied with Paradise and purity. Perhaps this work is a Surrealist's homage to Da Vinci's The Measure of Man, an appropriated Measure of Woman. Where Da Vinci's figure is a clearly rendered anatomical fact, Man Ray chooses an ethereal and ambiguous approach to his eroticism. The implied circumference of this woman's grasp contrasts the purity of bodily form with a suggestive pose; without a face and thus without revealing identity.
Man Ray felt strongly enough about the triptych to include it in the last exhibition of his work he would live to see, Man Ray, Inventor/Painter/Poet. Organized by the New York Cultural Center, it travelled to London and Rome from 1974 to 1975.
For an artist whose work was at the center of Dada and Surrealism, the theme of the elusive passage of time was as concrete an element of his palette as film, light or paint. As early as 1920, Man Ray was concerned with the depiction of motion and time, to which his experiments with Duchamp, the Rotary Glass Plates (1920), the Rotary Demisphere (1925) and the later Rotorelief Disques Optiques (1935) testify.
Perhaps first conceived as a diptych, the addition of the later print of Demain completes the piece. With his own - and Duchamp's - advancing years only confirmed by the passing away of many close friends and peers, a growing preoccupation with time would seem obvious. Timothy Baum, the leading expert on Man Ray, has confirmed, based on conversations he had with the artist, that the work was completed in 1965 when the later print of Demain was added. This year coincided with the artist's 75th birthday, and the completion was "perhaps rendered out of respect for a wistfulness that this level of life and this age plateau would dictate".
The printing, use of collage and ink drawing on Hier and Aujourd'hui firmly mark these as works from the 1930s. Similar treatment is found on other important works of the period, such as the satirical Monument á D. A. F. de Sade of 1933 which depicts, quite simply, an androgenous buttocks framed within a line drawing of an upside down cross or crucifix. The print of Demain, executed in 1965, was intended for a limited edition multiple, published in 1967 by Arturo Schwarz. In this form, the print was inserted in a plastic sleeve, curled into a cylinder and mounted to a base. (See Christie's London, 23 June 1993, The Kodicek Collection of Modern Pictures, lot 321.) This particular print is outside of the edition of six and two artist's proofs.
Although Demain on its own is representative of Man Ray's work at the time, Hier, Demain, Aujourd'hui goes beyond what is purely iconographic. It is a masterwork as only Man Ray could imagine; enigmatic and complex, replete with historical reference and unique in its approach and execution. The addition of Demain so many years later is a reflective act, moving towards the culmination of a long and fruitful career. The vintage print collages bear witness to the artist's contempt for the commonplace and the expected.
The application of the simplified forms and primary colors of the cut paper may recall Constructivist collage. However, unlike Popova for example, Man Ray is interested in the world beyond the frame that goes beyond line, form and color - the world of image, psychology and desire.
In Man Ray: The Rigour of Imagination, Arturo Schwarz suggests that the title of Demain implies eternal youth. He then asks of the picture "Does Man Ray wish to suggest that perfection lies in the bliss of sex, and/or, does he wish to remind us of Paradise when nakedness was our natural state?". (op. cit. p. 159) The radiating lines and spots of color, in their planetary orbiting of the model's body recalls another legendary artist whose work was preoccupied with Paradise and purity. Perhaps this work is a Surrealist's homage to Da Vinci's The Measure of Man, an appropriated Measure of Woman. Where Da Vinci's figure is a clearly rendered anatomical fact, Man Ray chooses an ethereal and ambiguous approach to his eroticism. The implied circumference of this woman's grasp contrasts the purity of bodily form with a suggestive pose; without a face and thus without revealing identity.
Man Ray felt strongly enough about the triptych to include it in the last exhibition of his work he would live to see, Man Ray, Inventor/Painter/Poet. Organized by the New York Cultural Center, it travelled to London and Rome from 1974 to 1975.