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Projet pour la toile ʻPremier amourʼ (huile)

Projet pour la toile ʻPremier amourʼ (huile)

Man Ray (in 1952)

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Specifications

Title Projet pour la toile ʻPremier amourʼ (huile)
Material and technique Collage on cardboard
Object type
Painting > Painting > Two-dimensional object > Art object
Location This object is in storage
Dimensions Width Error: 63,5 is not a valid BCD value cm
Height Error: 50,2 is not a valid BCD value cm
Artists Artist: Man Ray
Accession number 2798 (MK)
Credits Purchased 1972
Department Modern Art
Acquisition date 1972
Creation date in 1952
Entitled parties © Man Ray Trust / ADAGP, c/o Pictoright Amsterdam 2018
Provenance Artist’s collection
Exhibitions Rotterdam/Paris/Humlebaek 1971-72; Antwerp 1994; London 1995; Rotterdam 1996a; Nice 1997; Rotterdam 1998a; Rotterdam 2017b
Internal exhibitions Collectie - surrealisme (2017)
Research Show research A dream collection - Surrealism in Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
Literature Rotterdam/Paris/Humlebaek 1971-72, cat. no. 62, p. 128
Material
Object
Technique
Collage > Adding and binding materials > General technique > Technique > Material and technique
Geographical origin The United States of America > North America > America

Entry catalogue A dream collection - Surrealism in Museum Boijmans Van beuningen

Author: Marijke Peyser

In the autumn of 1971 Renilde Hammacher-Van den Brande, then senior curator of modern art at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, staged the first retrospective of Man Ray’s work in the Netherlands.[1] In total 287 works were shown, ranging from paintings, collages, drawings, watercolours, gouaches, objects and rayographs to cliché verres, books and prints. The exhibition gave an impression of the eclecticism of the oeuvre. In the catalogue published to accompany the exhibition, Hammacher described the artist thus: ‘Man Ray is one of the most audacious pioneers of the art of our time’.[2]

In the museum’s archives there is an extensive exchange of letters about the exhibition between the curator and the artist.[3] Back and forth they corresponded in French about loans, transporting art and financial matters. When the exhibition closed, Hammacher wrote to Man Ray: ‘I told my director (J.C. Ebbinge Wubben) that you were minded to give your large canvas “Mon Premier Amour” to the museum. He was very moved by your intention. Your gift is accepted with thanks. This important work will receive a place of honour in the new wing of the museum which will open next year.’[4]

Mon premier amour is a rare geometric abstract canvas in the artist’s oeuvre, with colourful surfaces overlapping like a collage. The title refers to a statement by Man Ray: ‘Having tried a dozen jobs, I have returned to my first love, painting, and I have remained faithful to her ever since.[5] In this work the artist used collage and aerography, two techniques in which he was already very experienced. Man Ray had already employed the collage technique in his earliest works. One good example is the series Revolving Doors (1916-17) which is made up of pieces of paper attached to a paper base. In the same period he experimented with aerography: spraying on colour to achieve a soft photographic effect (see also The Rope Dancer Accompanies Herself with Her Shadows).[6] In the oil painting Mon premier amour the colour was applied with a spray usually used for insecticide, after which Man Ray smoothed out the paint with a palette knife.[7]

The work on paper in the museum’s collection is a preliminary study for the oil painting. Immediately after Man Ray’s generous gift, Hammacher wrote to the artist that ‘the museum would be delighted to purchase more work, in particular the collage “Mon premier amour” [sic], which would go together so splendidly with the large painting’.[8] Man Ray agreed, and the purchase was made in the same year, 1972.

 

Footnotes

[1] After Rotterdam, the exhibition went on to the Musée nationale d’Art moderne, Paris (January-February 1972) and the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek, Denmark (March-April 1972).

[2] Rotterdam/Paris/Humlebaek 1971-72, p. 5.

[3] MBVB Archives, Man Ray object file, Mon premier amour.

[4] Letter of 18 November 1971.

[5] Bourgeade 1972, p. 137.

[6] Schwarz 1980, p. 43.

[7] Ibid., p. 131.

[8] Letter from Renilde Hammacher-Van den Brande to Man Ray, dated 18 November 1972, MBVB Archives, Man Ray object file, Mon premier amour.

Show research A dream collection - Surrealism in Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
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