MAN RAY | The Archive is Limited (2024)

DAVID HAMMONS, invite, 2019
each 20 x 26 cm
complete set of Hauser & Wirth announcements and invitations 2019
42 cards, offset, heavy weight cardboard
condition: splendid
published by Hauser & Wirth, Zurich, St Moritz, London, New York, Hongkong. Los Angeles
inv.H&W 588-pr

These cards were issued in 2019 with the following artists:
RITA ACKERMANN
IDA APPLEBROOG
DIANE ARBUS
JEAN ARP
MAX BILL
LOUISE BOURGEOIS
MARK BRADFORD
GETA BRÃTESCU
STEFAN BRÜGGEMANN
HEIDI BUCHER
ALKEXANDER CALDER
JOHN CHAMBERLAIN
EDUARDO CHILLIDA
ED CLARK
MARCEL DUCHAMP
GÜNTHER FÖRG
CHARLES GAINES
SONIA GOMES
CATHERINE GOODMAN
PHILIP GUSTON
DAVID HAMMONS
MARY HEILMANN
EVA HESSE
LUCHITA HURTADO
EVA HESSE
SHEILA HICKS
JENNY HOLZER
LUCHITA HURTADO
MATTHEW DAY JACKSON
RASHID JOHNSON
DONALD JUDD
MIKE KELLEY
BHARTI KHER
GUILLERMO KUITCA
MARIA LASSNIG
ANNIE LEIBOVITZ
LEE LOZANO
SOL LEWITT
RENÉ MAGRITTE
ANNA MARIA MAIOLINO
PIERO MANZONI
TAKESADA MATSUTANI
LÀSZLÓ MOHOLY-NAGY
BRUCE NAUMAN
MERET OPPENHEIM
PABLO PICASSO
CAROL RAMA
MAN RAY
DIETER ROTH
ED RUSCHA
AMY SHERALD
LORNA SIMPSON
SYLVIA SLEIGH
DAVID SMITH
JESÚS RAFAEL SOTO
ALINA SZAPOCZNIKOW
KEITH TYSON
ANDY WARHOL
FRANZ WEST

MAN RAY, Self portrait, 1974 [sculptural poster]
69,7 x 99,5 cm
offset, triptych
folded for mailing as issued
publisher Studio Marconi, Milano, Italy
sculptural poster as self portrait designed by the artist
condition: three tiny wears in center due to folding as sent
extremely rare, not mentioned in the Junko and Teruo Ishihara collection
(excluding handmade wooden reader’s desk)
€ 3.800,- plus € 12,- Track & Trace registered mail
inv.MRay 198-pr

In his fifties Man Ray shaved half his face for the above self-portrait. Francis Naumann has suggested that this act may have referred to Man Ray’s duel identity as an American artist with strong ties in Europe. He was living in Hollywood at the time he took the photograph in 1942, and would return with his wife Juliet to Paris in 1951 to spent the rest of his life.

This large triptych print was published as an announcement for a work called Autoritratto (23 x 18 cm), a signed and numbered photo edition of 23 copies – together with a biographical text and an archivist’s note in pencil with the name of the artist.

MAN RAY, Self Portrait, 1965
24 x 17 x 4 cm
book, autobiography, ill.
1st edition, hand signed in pencil
published by Little Brown & Company Ltd, Canada in association with Atlantic Monthly Press
mylar protection cover
dust cover on lower front side has tiny chips; for the rest more than very good
very rare in this state
€ 980,- plus € 18,- Track and Trace registered mail
inv.MRay 305

This copy of the autobiography Self Portrait of Man Ray has been signed as if the book itself is an art object, i.e. there is no dedication, just a signature in pencil and therefore very rare, as such. The dust cover is supported by a mylar protection cover and an extra inner Highsmith paper wrapping (white).

A signature in a book is always a precarious element when it comes to authenticity, more than when it concerns e.g. an etching published during the lifetime of the author. Below a signature is shown that may be compared with the one on the title page of the autobiography.

Graphological report.
A graphological analysis should describe some remarkable characteristics of the handwriting: surname is written on a lower level than the first name, the run-up diacritical movement of the pencil is equal to each other, the hooky tops of the x-height letters are very similar, one detects several diacritical movements in both signature, the middle leg of the ‘M’ is lifted due to the speed of writing, etc. A graphological description is available, when the book is purchased.

MAN RAY, Self Portrait, ca 1980
15 x 10 cm / 4″ x 6″
postcard
edition unknown
for sale in combination with Man Ray Self-portrait, i.e. extremely rare poster as sculpture in print

Self portrait photographed in 1943 by Man Ray. In his fifties Man Ray shaved half his face for the above self-portrait. Francis Naumann has suggested that this act may have referred to Man Ray’s duel identity as an American artist with strong ties in Europe. Man Ray was living in Hollywood at the time he took the photograph (1942), and would return with his wife Juliet to Paris in 1951 to spent the rest of his life in the capital.

MAN RAY, Cadeau, 1974
16,5 x 10,2 x 9,5 cm
cast iron, copper nails, plastic card certificate
signed with initials, numbered
edition 5000
published by Luciano Anselmino, Turin, Italy

Conceived in 1921 and published in 1974 by founder Luciano Anselmino, Turin in Italy.

Signed on a twice folded card with information about this object, accompanied by a small card bearing the number of the multiple and signed with initials.

When it comes to added certificate card, original wrapping etc. in the market, there is a variety of items that go with this edition from 1974.

MAN RAY, The man, the art, the work, ca 1955
41,5 x 9,7 cm
pencil on (verso) invitation card of exhibition by Stoltenberg
Provenance : Juliet Man Ray

Man Ray wrote the following text on the back of an invitation card: “The man, the art, the work, it is all one. The art of the inner works which unlike the outer does not forsake the content, which he does not do – and can only ‘be’ – spring from depths of which the day knows nothing. The inward work, however, consists in his turning the man he is, and the self he feels himself to be, into the raw material of training and shaping where end is mastering – in art – the artist and the human being meet in something higher. In [?] mastery proves its validity as a form only when it dereels[?] in the boundless truth only sustained by it becomes the origin. The master no longer seeks but finds.

History of prices:
Auction House Drouot, (Duchamp-Man Ray) 22 June 1999
Paris Photo Collection € 1.100,- May 2013

MAN RAY, Cadeau, 1921
16,5 x 10,2 x 9,5 cm
Cast iron, copper spikes, cilinder shaped cardboard box, certificate
signed with initials in ink, numbered
edition 300

The work ‘Cadeau’ was published in 1921 under the supervision of founder Luciano Anselmino, Turin. Here with original box. Again it was executed in 1974 by the same founder and publisher Luciano Anselmino in an edition of 5000, accompanied by a signed and numbered plastic card and a numbered certificate by Arturo Schwarz with information about the object.

“Man Ray never destroys, he always modifies and enriches. In this case, he provides the flat iron with a new role, a role that we dimly guess, and the probably accounts for the object’s strange fascination.”
Arturo Schwarz (dealer and author)