Man Ray (Emmanuel Radnitzky, 1890-1976)

Dame de Trèfle (Queen of Clubs)

etching in white ink on black paper, 1970

hand signed in pencil lower right

numbered in pencil lower left from the edition of 120

(also edition of 75 on white paper with pochoir)

plate size 19.75 x 15.25 in. (50.5 x 39 cm.)

paper size 25.375 x 19.75 in. (64.5 x 50.5 cm.)

Reference:  Anselmino 87 | Slusher 244

Man Ray was a key figure of Dada and Surrealism, one of the few Americans associated with either movement. Born Emmanuel Radnitzky, the artist adopted his pseudonym in 1909 and—while he also worked across painting, sculpture, video, and printmaking—became renowned for his striking, sensual black-and-white photographs. A number of his portraits—such as Larmes (Tears) (ca. 1932), which features a woman “crying” glass bead tears, and his pictures of Kiki de Montparnasse—are icons of 20th-century art. Man Ray also embraced technical experimentation; he used solarization and made Rayographs (an eponym for his photograms) as he pushed the boundaries of avant-garde photography. At auction, his work has sold for seven figures, and his paintings have fetched particularly high prices. Man Ray is represented in the collections of such institutions as the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.