Max Ernst en collaboration avec Man Ray

Max Ernst in collaboration with Man Ray
Illustration for Breton's Le Chateau étoilé: "Que tous les petits génies de l'enfance..."sophale", 1936
Silver gelatin print
Signed in ink by ME on the print
10 2/4h x 8w inches

Estimate: €5,000 - 7,000

Madrid, Paris & Berlin, 2007-10, p. 146
Tokyo, 2010, no. 154
Brühl, 2013, p. 214

Breton, 1936, p. 28
Spies, 1979, p. 352 (illustration du frottage et de la rayogramme)

This print is in very good general condition; with a semi matte surface. With a 3 cm diagonal crease in close to the lower right corner, and slightly worn corners with minimal gelatin loss. With very light and minimal foxing, and small retouching marks only visible in raking light.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

In the early 1930s, Max Ernst and Man Ray, both perpetual experimenters in their quest for new artistic techniques, were determined to master a process that enabled the transfer of drawings created using Ernst’s frottage technique to photographic paper, without the use of a camera. First used by Ernst in 1925, frottages(the French word for rubbing) were created by placing sheets of paper over a textured material and rubbing over them in pencil to produce mysterious, abstract images from the underlying surface.

After several days of trial and error, they mastered the process: the frottage on thin, translucent paper could be laid directly onto light-sensitive photographic paper and exposed to light. The translucent paper permitted the light to react with the photographic paper where the frottage was void of any pencil rubbings. The resulting images, camera-less photographs by way of the photogram process, were similar to the 19^th century cliché-verre practice. The frottage on thin paper served as the “negative” and the resulting print with reversed tones produced dramatic images set on a black background, accentuating the fantastical, hallucinatory character of Ernst’s compositions.

A series of four photograms by the two artists were used to illustrate René Crevel’s Mr. Knife, Miss Fork (1931). The present four lots were executed in 1936, and three were chosen to illustrate the publication of André Breton’s Le Chat

eau étoilé in the journal Minotaure, (the text was included in 1937 in his important book L’Amour fou). Breton’s essay, “part travelogue, part meditation on politics and his love for Jacqueline,” had been inspired by his trip to Tenerife in spring 1935, where “he discovered the island’s exotic flora, the stunning black sand beaches, and the magnificent Peak of the Tiede. He combined his impressions of the Canaries’ savage beauty with his memories of the magnificent star-shaped castle at Sterntiergarten near Prague” (Mark Polizzotti, Revolution of the Mind, The Life of André Breton, London, 1995, p. 432). This edifice is the “Chateau étoilé” of the title, built “by the side of the abyss, of the philosopher’s stone” (lot 131).

Unique works for which no original negative exists, like Rayographs, these collaborative works are exceedingly rare. Each laboriously executed, yet fitting naturally into a sequence of innovative techniques that Man Ray was able to master with precision, following his own cliché-verre series of 1917 and his Rayographs of the 1920s, all achieved by projection of light onto photographic paper, without the aid of a camera.