Man Ray
43 4/16 x 47 3/16 x 47 3/16 in
Size of the suitcase:
(close) H 20 x W 64 x D 50 cm
(open) H 57 x W 64 x D 67 cm
hanger size : H 14 x W 39 x D 0,6 cm, installation size not recorded
for the size of the base, we don’ t have any intruction about it.
Further images
Man Ray worked in a wide range of media, including photography, painting, and sculpture, often blurring the boundaries between these practices. Obstruction, an assemblage of sixty-three wood coat hangers, is an example of a type of artwork that Dada artist Marcel Duchamp called a readymade, a term that suggests Man Ray's appropriation and manipulation of pre-existing, common objects. The sculpture playfully mimics a chandelier, but, as the hangers seemingly divide and multiply, Obstruction quickly evolves into a dense tangle of overlapping forms. Cast shadows serve as distorted immaterial extensions of its physical presence. Man Ray first created Obstruction in 1920, but the present work belongs to an edition of fifteen reproductions he created in 1961 for an important exhibition of kinetic art.
Provenance
Marion Meyer, Collection, Paris, FranceArtist studio
First original in 1920, lost
Second original in 1947, lost
Edition of 15 for the Stockholm Museum in 1961, without suitcase and lithography.
Man Ray created a unique piece in 1964, with 65 coats hangers, monogrammed and dated 1964.
Edition of 10 by Arturo Schwarz, in 1965, with suitcase and certificate of Man Ray, lithography notice.
Man Ray offer in 1975, to the city of Rome, un white coat hanger, signed and dedicated.
Exhibitions
Man Ray 1972, Musée national d’art moderne, Paris, cat 144, pg 72 Man Ray, Janus, Edition Fratelli Fabbri, 1973, reproduced n°21.
PERPETUAL MOTIF the Art of Man Ray :
National Museum of American Art Smithsonian Institut, Washington D.C, 1988
MOCA, Los Angeles, 1989
Menil Collection, Houston, 1989
Philadephia Museum, 1990
AMERICAN ART IN THE 20TH CENTURY :
Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1993, reproduced in the catalogue, figure n°12
Martin Gropius Bau Berlin, 1993
MADE IN USA, L’art américain 1908-1947 :
Musée des Beaux Arts, Bordeaux, 2001
Musée des Beaux Arts, Rennes, 2001
Musée des Beaux Arts, Fabre Montpellier, 2002, reproduced in the catalogue, p.119
Alias MAN RAY : Jewish Museum of American Art, New York, 2010-2011, reproduced in the catalogue, p.138, figure 6
Jeux Surréalisme : The Tokushima Modern Art Museum, Tokushima : du 27 avril 2013 au 30 juin 2013
Travelled to : Sompo Japan Museum of Art, Tokyo : du 9 juillet au 25 août 2013
Le Surréalisme et l’Objet : Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, octobre 2013 - mars 2014
Man Ray & Sherrie Levine: A Dialogue through Objects, Images & Ideas, MARUANI MERCIER Gallery, 2015
Man Ray, Kunstforum Wien, Feb-June 2018
FROM MAN RAY TO MARIEN: An Idea of Surrealism, MARUANI MERCIER, Brussels (2021)
MAN RAY ET LES FEMMES (traveling exhibition) :
• The Bunkamura Museum of Art, Tokyo : 13.07.2021 - 06.09.2021
• The Nagano Prefectural Shinano Art Museum, Nagano : 21.04.2022 - 19.06.2022
• Niigata City Art Museum, Niigata : 02.07.2022- 25.09.2022
• The Museum of Modern Art, Hayama Kanagawa : 01.10.2022 - 22.01.2023