Au Poil

Author: Marijke Peyser

Man Ray made Au poil, his last readymade, in 1971. Fifty signed and dated copies of it were made. Au poil consists of two pieces of Perspex with a flat brush stuck between them. Only the numbers one to eight of this series also contain the photograph Demain, a nude portrait of a woman that Man Ray made in 1924.^[1] Man Ray’s biographer Arturo Schwarz received number seven from this series of fifty, which had the dedication ‘for Arturo Schwarz’ on it. Unfortunately Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen’s version has to be exhibited without the photograph, which if it were present, would make the meaning of the whole thing clear. Au poil is a common French expression to indicate that something is ‘perfect’. The woman portrayed is à poil – naked. The entire thing – with the photograph – is au poil – perfect. The woman’s pubic hair is rendered with perfect three-dimensional reality, au poil, when the hairs of the brush are placed in the right place.^[2]

The second issue of the Surrealist magazine La Révolution surréaliste (January 1925) contained an illustration of Demain.^[3] The photograph was intentionally printed in such a way that the outlines of the model remained vague and were absorbed into the dark background. The aim was to create an illusion. This dream image fulfilled the Surrealists’ objectives in all respects.^[4] We know the identity of the sitter: she was Kiki de Montparnasse, the pseudonym of Alice Prin. A well-known personality in Montparnasse in the 1920s, as well as an artist’s model she was also a singer, an actress and a painter. She met Man Ray in 1921, soon after he arrived in Paris, and became his muse and model. Man Ray photographed her countless times; she featured in Noire et blanche (1926) and in Violon d’Ingres (1924). Kiki also played a role in Emak Bakia, Man Ray’s Surrealist film which had its première in Paris on 23 November 1926.

The photograph Demain is the centre work in Man Ray’s photographic triptych Hier, Demain, Aujourd’hui (Yesterday, Tomorrow, Today, 1924) and is identical to the nude photograph that is an essential part of the 1971 readymade.^[5] One prominent detail adds an extra dimension to Au poil. It was usual to retouch photographic work. Imperfections were frequently removed. Sometimes photographs were retouched. This was also the case with the nude photographs of Kiki, who was miserable because she had no pubic hair.^[6] There was no need for a retouch to the nude photograph of Kiki between the Perspex plates of the readymade: the brush took care of that.