
© Man Ray Trust / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris
Image downloads are for educational use only. For all other purposes, please see our Obtaining and Using Images page.

© Man Ray Trust / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris
Image downloads are for educational use only. For all other purposes, please see our Obtaining and Using Images page.


Man Ray
American, 1890-1976
Frosted Objects (of my Affection), 1946
rayograph
Edition: unique
overall: 18 x 15 1/8 inches (45.72 x 38.42 cm)
Collection Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York
Sherman S. Jewett Fund, 1972
1972:17
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Information may change due to ongoing research.Glossary of Terms
Man Ray’s life and art were about freedom, pleasure, and a continuous search for new and innovative means of expression. He used a variety of techniques in his painting, sculpture, filmmaking, and photography. This work is a rayograph, a technique developed by and named after the artist. To create the image, Man Ray placed objects directly on photosensitive paper and exposed them to light. Unlike a traditional photograph, however, each work is unique; there is no negative from which to make additional prints. In 1921, Man Ray created his first rayograph soon after moving to Paris. There he met artists associated with two important twentieth-century art movements. The first was Dada, which had no rules—anything was acceptable and could be art—and the second was the Surrealist movement. The Surrealists grew out of Dada and were interested in the merging reality with the unconscious. Man Ray’s use of chance effects and unexpected combinations in Frosted Objects (of my Affection) parallels the odd mixtures of things we experience in our dreams. Some of the items in this work—scissors, a mousetrap, keys, and a wishbone—are easily identifiable. The other items are impossible to identify yet evoke a feeling of familiarity when juxtaposed against other recognizable objects.
Label from For the Love of Things: Still Life, February 27–May 29, 2016
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,Untitled from the portfolio De l'origine d'especes par voie le selection irrationnelle (On the Origin of Species as a Process of Irrational Selection)
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,
Surrealism
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