Électricité. Dix Rayogrammes de Man Ray et un Texte de Pierre Bost
Man Ray. Bost, Pierre
Paris. CPDE (Compagnie Parisienne de Distribution d'Electricité). 1931
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Man Ray's Electricité - one of 500 copies - in the original publisher's slipcase and with the original compliment slip.
From the edition limited to 500 numbered copies; the publisher's brown card slipcase is also numbered. The justification and 'achevé d'imprimer' are printed on the inside of the card portfolio.
This work was commissioned by a French electric company (La Compagnie Parisienne de Distribution d'Électricité) to promote and publicise the use of electricity. The portfolio consists of 10 photogravures made from Man Ray's original rayograms; each rayogram makes use of some electrical device in the home. The conception is brilliant and the images among the most direct and uncontrived in Man Ray's oeuvre.
The plates are titled as follows (all plates bear the caption 'Electricité'): Le Monde; La Ville; La Maison; Salle de Bain; Lingerie; Salle à Manger; Cuisine; Le Souffle; Électricité (two plates).
'Man Ray's Electricité (Electricity) is not only one of the most ravishing and sought-after of company photobooks, but it contains a cogent suite of photographs that the leading American Dadaist and commercial photographer himself never bettered. The ideas are generally simple, but formally adroit, even witty - full of visial poetry and delight ... Electricity is, of course, invisible, and in much of the portfolio Man Ray seeks to make the invisible visible, creating visual equivalents for electrical power ... Solarized images look as if they are pulsating with hidden energy ... They [CPDE] ended up with one of the most successful unions between commerce and the artistic avant garde, a monument of modernist book-making and a thoroughly contemporary, unexpected, beautiful and frequently playful vision of the brave new world of electrical energy.' (Parr / Badger).
'Les romans d'anticipation accordent volontiers à l'électricité le rôle de chef accessoiriste sur leurs scènes imaginaires, et la chargent de toutes les besognes; on voit en elle la machine qui réalise les désirs, comme pour se justifier de les avoir d'abord fait naître. 'Presser sur un bouton' est devenu le geste magique des contes modernes et futurs. L'anneau de Gygès est aimanté, la lampe d'Aladin est électrique, comme les astres de Man Ray.' (Bost writing in the 'Texte').
[Parr & Badger II, 183].
From the edition limited to 500 numbered copies; the publisher's brown card slipcase is also numbered. The justification and 'achevé d'imprimer' are printed on the inside of the card portfolio.
This work was commissioned by a French electric company (La Compagnie Parisienne de Distribution d'Électricité) to promote and publicise the use of electricity. The portfolio consists of 10 photogravures made from Man Ray's original rayograms; each rayogram makes use of some electrical device in the home. The conception is brilliant and the images among the most direct and uncontrived in Man Ray's oeuvre.
The plates are titled as follows (all plates bear the caption 'Electricité'): Le Monde; La Ville; La Maison; Salle de Bain; Lingerie; Salle à Manger; Cuisine; Le Souffle; Électricité (two plates).
'Man Ray's Electricité (Electricity) is not only one of the most ravishing and sought-after of company photobooks, but it contains a cogent suite of photographs that the leading American Dadaist and commercial photographer himself never bettered. The ideas are generally simple, but formally adroit, even witty - full of visial poetry and delight ... Electricity is, of course, invisible, and in much of the portfolio Man Ray seeks to make the invisible visible, creating visual equivalents for electrical power ... Solarized images look as if they are pulsating with hidden energy ... They [CPDE] ended up with one of the most successful unions between commerce and the artistic avant garde, a monument of modernist book-making and a thoroughly contemporary, unexpected, beautiful and frequently playful vision of the brave new world of electrical energy.' (Parr / Badger).
'Les romans d'anticipation accordent volontiers à l'électricité le rôle de chef accessoiriste sur leurs scènes imaginaires, et la chargent de toutes les besognes; on voit en elle la machine qui réalise les désirs, comme pour se justifier de les avoir d'abord fait naître. 'Presser sur un bouton' est devenu le geste magique des contes modernes et futurs. L'anneau de Gygès est aimanté, la lampe d'Aladin est électrique, comme les astres de Man Ray.' (Bost writing in the 'Texte').
[Parr & Badger II, 183].
pp. (vi) text. Folio. (385 x 290 mm). Illustrated with 10 rayograms by Man Ray, each signed in the plate and mounted to large sheets of card as issued and each with protective glassine guardleaf with printed title. Original publisher's printed card portfolio with typographic design in blue and black, glassine jacket and original publisher's protective card slipcase.
#41252
