Man Ray

In 1960 May Ray participated in the first collection of Edition MAT with a revision of his Le retour à la raison, a work that originated in 1919 when the artist was living in New York. The object originally consisted of a paper lampshade that he apparently found broken in a rubbish pile. When hung from the ceiling, the uncoiling paper “formed a pleasing spiral,” the artist recalled. According to the artist’s autobiography, a janitor mistook this appropriated work for trash on the eve of its exhibition debut and discarded it. Needing to quickly replace the work, Man Ray obtained a piece of sheet metal, twisted it into a spiral, and applied a coat of quick-drying flat white paint. “With satisfaction, I contemplated the substitution, taking pleasure in the thought that it would resist any attempt at destruction,” he remembered. Spurning existing conventions of artistic authenticity and material value, Man Ray frequently lost or destroyed his works and then reimagined them later in different mediums, including photographs, paintings, films, and replicas, which he treated as equivalent substitutes. The version created for Edition MAT was made using a sheet of aluminum that hangs from the ceiling to create an elongated spiral.

Man Ray (American, 1890–1976), Le retour à la raison (The return to reason), 1919/1960. Aluminum sheet, 6/100, 17 11/16 x 17 11/16 x 17 11/16 in. (45 x 45 x 45 cm). Published by Edition MAT, Paris. Kunstmuseen Krefeld, Germany. © Man Ray 2015 Trust / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris. Photo © Kunstmuseen Krefeld–Volker Döhne–ARTOTHEK.