MAN RAY (1870-1976)

La prière (The prayer)

Details

MAN RAY (1870-1976)
La prière (The prayer)
signed 'Man Ray' (lower right); numbered 'II/VII' (lower left)
gelatin silver print on linen, printed late 1960s
12 7⁄8 x 9 3/8in. (32.8 x 23.7cm.)
Executed in 1930, this work is number two from an edition of seven

Provenance

White Cube, London.
Roger and Josette Vanthournout, Belgium, by whom acquired from the above, and thence by descent.

Literature

R. Penrose, Man Ray, London, 1975, no. 60 (illustrated, p. 105).
E. Janus, Man Ray: L'Immagine Fotografica, exh. cat., La Biennale di Venezia, 1977, pl. 90.
A. Schwarz, The Rigour of Imagination, Man Ray, London, 1977, p. 64.
Man Ray Inventionen und Interpretationen, Frankfurt 1979, p. 168 (illustrated in colour, p. 142).
Man Ray: Vintage Photographs, Solarizations and Rayographs, exh. cat., Kimmel/Cohn Photography Arts, New York, 1977, pl. 83.
J.-H. Martin et al., Man Ray: Photographs, New York, 1982, p. 191, p. 157.
Man Ray, exh. cat., Ronny Van de Velde, Antwerp, 1994, p. 90, no. 60.
Man Ray: La photographie à l'envers, exh. cat., Musée national d'art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, 1998, pp. 164-165.
E. de l'Ecotais et al., Man Ray, New York, 2000, p. 63.
E.C. Garcia, Man Ray in Paris, exh. cat., J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 2011, p. 86.
Man Ray/Lee Miller: Partners in Surrealism, exh. cat., Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, 2011, p. 76.
Man Ray, exh. cat., Museo d'Arte della Città di Lugano, 2011, p. 142 (variant).

Exhibited

Washington D.C., National Museum of American Art, Perpetual Motif: The Art of Man Ray, 1988-1990, p. 216 (illustrated, fig. 190). This exhibition later travelled to Los Angeles, The Museum of Contemporary Art and Houston, The Menil Collection and Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Miami, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sweet Dreams and Nightmares: Dada and Surrealism from the Rosalind and Melvin Jacobs Collection, 2000.
London, Tate Britain, Lee Miller, 2026.

Conditions of sale

Brought to you by

Olivier Camu Deputy Chairman, Senior International Director

ocamu@christies.com +44 (0) 776 858 3825

Lot Essay

One of Man Ray’s most accomplished nude studies, La Prière conjures a phantasmal, surrealist image through refined photographic techniques and a layered play of dualities and double-entendres. The title reflects the artist’s fascination with ambiguity in both image and language, as well as his delight in jargon and wordplay. While the literal translation is The Prayer, the phrase can also mean The Invitation, and in old slang, “to reveal where the money is hidden.” The model for the image, Lee Miller, is posed in an undeniably erotic manner, yet the positioning of her hands evokes prayer and chastity. Through strategic lighting and framing, Man Ray achieves a sense of disembodiment that intensifies the work’s enigmatic tension between the sacred and the profane.

Man Ray worked fluidly across media, materials, and modes of presentation to express his artistic intent. The present photograph was taken in 1930, but is here presented as an artist's proof from an edition of seven on stretched linen made by the artist in the 1960s, underscoring Man Ray’s continued experimentation with materials and presentation throughout his career.

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