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Dimensions: measurements note 6 7/8 by 9 in. (17.5 by 22.8 cm.)
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Exhibited: Monterey Museum of Art, Passion and Precision: Photographs from the Collection of Margaret W. Weston , January ? April 2003 San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Beyond Real: Surrealist Photography and Sculpture from Bay Area Collections , March ? May 2006
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Literature:
Passion and Precision: Photographs from the Collection of Margaret W. Weston
(Monterey Museum of Art, 2003, in conjunction with the exhibition), p. 18 (this print)
Other prints of this image:
Janus, Man Ray: The Photographic Image
(Woodbury, New York, 1980), pl. 55 Man Ray, Photographs
(New York, 1981), pl. 109 (variant cropping)
Emmanuelle de l?Ecotais and Alain Sayag, eds., Man Ray: Photography and Its Double
(Musée National d?Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, 1998, in conjunction with the exhibition), p. 12 (variant cropping)
Jan Ceuleers, ed., Man Ray,
1890-1976
(Ghent and New York, 1994), pp. 40-41 (variant cropping) Man Ray: Photographs, 1920-1934
(New York, 1975), pl. 44
Marina Vanci-Perahim, Great Modern Masters: Man Ray
(New York, 1997), p. 4
Merry Foresta and Willis Hartshorn, Man Ray: In Fashion
(International Center of Photography, 1990, in conjunction with the Man Ray/Bazaar Years: A Fashion Retrospective
exhibition), p. 62 (variant cropping) Perpetual Motif: The Art of Man Ray,
(National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 1988, in conjunction with the exhibition), pl. 164 (variant cropping)
Rudolf Kicken, ed., Man Ray: 1890-1976 Photographien
(KunstHausWien, 1996), pl. 25 (variant cropping)
Herbert R. Lottman, Man Ray?s Montparnasse
(New York, 2001), p.57 (variant cropping)
Manfred Heiting, ed., Man Ray 1890-1976
(Köln, 2000), p. 39 (variant cropping)
Manfred Heiting, Still Life & Portraits
(Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, 2001, in conjunction with the exhibition), p. 36
Valerio Dehó, ed., Man Ray Women
(Bologna, 2005), p. 53
Rosalind Krauss and Jane Livingston, L?Amou r Fou: Photography & Surrealism
(The Corcoran Gallery of Art, 1985, in conjunction with the exhibition), p. 138 (variant cropping) Chorus of Light: Photographs from the Sir Elton John Collection
(Atlanta, High Museum of Art, 2000, in conjunction with the exhibition), p. 76 (variant cropping)
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Notes: The print of Man Ray?s famous ?Noire et Blanche? offered here is believed to be an early print of the image, with numerous annotations on the reverse that point to a complex and interesting history. The present photograph is one of the first prints of the image to have appeared in a photographs auction, first at Sotheby?s Belgravia in 1978, only a few years after regular photographs auctions in London began, and then at Christie?s East, New York, in 1980, when it was purchased by Maggi Weston for her private collection. In the 27 years Weston has owned the print, the connoisseurship of Man Ray?s photographs has become increasingly sophisticated, while the works themselves, in the open marketplace, ever more scarce. Of ?Noire et Blanche? in particular, it can be said that the evolving scholarship of Man Ray images has only confirmed the photograph?s central position within the photographer?s oeuvre , and its correspondingly high value in the market?s pantheon. The most definitive study of the image to date is Wendy A. Grossman and Steven Manford?s recent article, ?Unmasking Man Ray?s Noire et blanche? ( American Art , Vol. 20, No. 2, Summer 2006), in which the authors present new evidence regarding the photograph?s making, its publication and exhibition history, and its various states. Grossman and Manford reproduce the double-page spread from the May 1926 French Vogue , where the photograph was originally published. Their research has identified the owner of the picture?s Baule -style mask not as Jacques Doucet, as has been previously speculated, but as one George Sakier, who, like Man Ray, was a young American working in Paris, in Sakier?s case as a junior art director for French Vogue. Grossman and Manford note that Man Ray and Sakier had known each other from their early years in Brooklyn, and propose that Sakier himself may have collaborated with Man Ray on the photograph?s composition, contributing his carved black mask to be paired with the white face of Man Ray?s lover and muse of the time, the famous Kiki of Montparnasse. They trace in detail the evolution of the image from its origins as a fashion photograph to its current status as a Surrealist icon, with many changes of both title and context along the way. In his role as a scholar of Man Ray prints, Manford also traces the evolution of the ? Noire et Blanche? negatives and inter-negatives over the decades, concluding that with successive printings of the image, Man Ray retouched certain areas on both prints and negatives in pursuit of his fully-realized vision. The photograph offered here was likely printed from one of these retouched negatives, or inter-negatives, achieving what Manford calls the ?definitive state? of the picture: a wisp of unruly stray hair over Kiki?s ear has been completely removed, and her eyebrows, lashes, lips, and nose have been delicately ?shaped? by Man Ray?s retouching to become as stylized as the mask. With its enigmatic pairing of human and carved faces?the human face altered to better parallel the carved one?? Noire et Blanche? shows the wit, surprise, and somewhat unsettling qualities characteristic of Man Ray?s best work. The print offered here shows none of the dust and blemishes seen in late printings from the negatives; that, along with Man Ray?s handwriting and the Rue Campagne Première stamp (Manford M6) on the verso, confirms that the print is an early one. The reduction notations and various penciled numbers on the reverse, as well as Man Ray?s directional notation ?Haut, ? indicate that the print was used for reproduction at least one or more times. The ink inscription ?W & N archives,? in an unidentified hand on the reverse, is believed to refer to Weidenfeld & Nicholson, the British publishing house, another indication of the print?s history in the world of publishing.
