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Dadaphoto

Artist Man Ray (American, 1890 - 1976)
Date1920
MediumGelatin silver collage
DimensionsImage and sheet: 9 × 5 5/8 inches (22.86 × 14.29 cm)
Credit LineGift of Hallmark Cards, Inc.
Object number2005.27.4338
SignedOn sheet verso, top, in black pen: "Man Ray".
InscribedOn sheet verso, upper right, in black pen: ""Coatstand""; On sheet verso, top, in pencil: "Dadaphoto 1920"; On sheet verso, top, in blue pen: "Klāhāngaren" / Dadaphoto 1920".
MarkingsOn sheet verso, center, in pencil and crossed out: "Koustrevy [?] 219 / 4x6, [?] 13%"; On sheet verso, lower right, in red pencil: "70x111 / 100""; On sheet verso, lower right corner, in pencil: "49.5%"; On sheet verso, lower left, in red pencil: "17230/10" / "1" [circled].
On View
Not on view
Collections
DescriptionImage of a nude female with a cutout of a woman with movable arms displayed on a wooden stand and covering her face, shoulders, and arms. A stamp is placed on the photograph to cover her genitalia.Exhibition History

American Photography: Recent Additions to the Hallmark Photographic Collection.  The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, February 27 – May 14, 2000, no cat.

Rotation 3.  The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, March 20 – August 18, 2008, no cat.

World War I and the Rise of Modernism. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, January 9 – October 18, 2015, no cat.

Gallery Label
Of all American artists of the late 1910s, Man Ray best understood the currents of avant-garde European thought. With the visiting French artists Francis Picabia and Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray was a leader in the New York Dada group, a movement dedicated to nonconformity, irrationalism, and absurdity. Not surprisingly, most Americans considered it nonsense. This photograph was featured in the first (and only) issue of New York Dada, published in April 1921 by Duchamp and Man Ray. Dadaphoto captures the central concerns of the New York Dada group: the play between image and reality, the human and the mechanical, as well as the themes of sexuality, voyeurism, simulation, and impersonation.     
Copyright© Man Ray Trust / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY / ADAGP, Paris
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