Live Auction 17878The Face of the Century: Photographs from a Private Collection
MAN RAY (1890–1976)
Lot 130

MAN RAY (1890–1976)

Mathematical Object, 1934–1935

Closed2 April 2019

Price Realised

USD 30,000

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MAN RAY (1890–1976)
Mathematical Object, 1934–1935
gelatin silver print
stamped 'MAN RAY - 8/DU VAL-DE-GRACE/PARIS 5e - FRANCE/DANTON 92-25' [Manford M9] (verso); credited, titled and dated on affixed gallery label (frame backing)
image/sheet: 11 5/8 x 9 1/8 in. (29.7 x 23 cm.)

The Collection of Juliet Man Ray;
Robert Miller Gallery, New York;
Galerie Montaigne, Paris;
acquired from the above by the present owner.

Specialist note

The plaster model depicted in this photograph shows a seemingly arbitrary cluster of cubic forms. In fact, it depicts a unique form in which no shapes overlap. The symmetry is fixated within one central point—a 'space-tiling crystalline structure due to Schoenflies', (Man Ray Human Equations, p. 105). This image served as the inspiration for Man Ray's painting The Tempest.