Man Ray 1890-1976 (Deluxe Edition with Two Man Ray Photographs)

Antwerp: Ronny Van de Velde. Printed by Snoeck-Ducaju & Zoon in Ghent, 1994. Book: (12 3/4 x 10 3/4 x 2 1/2 inches). Photo image size: (11 1/8 x 8 3/8 inches). Photo sheet sizes: (11 1/8 x 8 3/8 inches). First deluxe edition. Numbered 26 of 220 copies, with 200 copies numbered 1 to 200 and 20 copies "hors commerce" numbered from I to XX. Unpaginated, but over 300 pages printed in black and white duotone, picturing 548 items. Bright red-orange cloth with black dye-stamped lettering, gilt edges and printed endpapers, and glossy color dust jacket. Set in blue clamshell cardboard box quarter-bound in black leather with embossed gilt lettering on spine, the front of the box is a trompe-l'oeil replica of an assemblage by Man Ray from 1969, set within a navy cardboard slipcase. Comes with a blue folder with two black and white photographs printed from original negatives

A numbered deluxe first edition of a landmark Man Ray monograph with a portfolio containing "Fashion Photograph" (1930) and "A View of the Artist's Studio" (1934) printed from Man Ray's original photo negatives.

A beautiful box-set containing (1.) A portfolio of photographs, "Fashion Photograph" (1930) and "A View of the Artist's Studio" (1934), printed from Man Ray's original negatives by Pierre Gassman: "Tirage original realisé par Pierre Gassman" with "Man Ray Paris" atelier stamp on backs. (2.) A hardcover monograph with jacket published for the exhibition Man Ray 1890-1976 at Ronny Van de Velde in 1994. (3.) A box with a trompe-l'oeil replica of Pêchage, an assemblage by Man Ray from 1969. (4.) A navy card slipcase. The exhibition catalogue contains more than three-hundred black and white photographs, fifty paintings, and sixty objects, as well as a biographical chronology, a catalogue of works, and five texts: two by Man Ray, "It Has Never Been My Object . . ." (1945) and "To Be Continued Unnoticed" (1948); and three by André Breton, "Man Ray" (1928), "The Visages of The Woman" (1934), and "Behold Man Ray" (1937). "[Man Ray's] chosen position as outsider - American in Paris, in the no man's land between art and photography, between iconoclasm and calculated composition, between American pragmatism and European elegance - lends to his best work a timeless power of attraction. The "Man Ray effect," that intangible aura, entices us most of all because his work summons up individual freedom and pleasure.