Acrylic paint and silkscreen on 2 canvases
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
ARTIST ROOMS
National Heritage Memorial Fund
Art Fund
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<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/andy-warhol-2121" aria-label="More by Andy Warhol" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Andy Warhol</a>
Man Ray
ARTIST ROOMS
Acquired jointly with the National Galleries of Scotland through The d'Offay Donation with assistance from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and the Art Fund 2008
adults
artist, multi-media
arts and entertainment
body
cigar
clothing and personal items
colour
emotions, concepts and ideas
formal qualities
hat, cap
head / face
individuals: male
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Man Ray
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<p>Warhol greatly admired Man Ray, a pioneer of photography as a medium for fine art, and collected his work. This double portrait is based on a Polaroid taken by Warhol at Man Ray’s home in Paris, where the two artists photographed each other. This is Man Ray towards the end of his life; Warhol recalled that he was very bent over and that the cigar he was smoking seemed ‘bigger than he was’. The gestural application of colourful acrylic paint contrasts with the reproduction of the photographic image and seems to suggest an emotional engagement with the subject.</p><p><em>Gallery label, March 2010</em></p>
painting acrylic paint silkscreen 2 canvases
28 March 2009 – 21 September 2009
2009-09-21
28 March 2009 – 21 September 2009
2009-09-21
2009-03-28
Wolverhampton Art Gallery (Wolverhampton, UK)
http://www.wolverhamptonart.org.uk
2009-03-28
ARTIST ROOMS 2009: Andy Warhol
Loan-out
27 March 2011 – 26 June 2011
2011-06-26
27 March 2011 – 26 June 2011
2011-06-26
2011-03-27
Southampton City Art Gallery (Southampton, UK)
http://www.southampton.gov.uk/leisure/arts
2011-03-27
ARTIST ROOMS 2011: Andy Warhol
Loan-out
24 September 2011 – 26 February 2012
2012-02-26
24 September 2011 – 26 February 2012
2012-02-26
2011-09-24
De La Warr Pavilion (Bexhill on Sea, UK)
http://www.dlwp.com/
2011-09-24
ARTIST ROOMS 2011: Andy Warhol
Loan-out
10 June 2017 – 2 September 2017
2017-09-02
10 June 2017 – 2 September 2017
2017-09-02
2017-06-10
Burgh Hall (Dunoon, UK)
2017-06-10
ARTIST ROOMS 2017: Andy Warhol
Loan-out
15 March 2025 – 29 June 2025
2025-06-29
15 March 2025 – 29 June 2025
2025-06-29
2025-03-15
MK Gallery (Milton Keynes, UK)
2025-03-15
Andy Warhol
Loan-out
Man Ray
support: 356 × 280 × 20 mm
support: 355 × 280 × 20 mm
<a href="/search?gid=999999788" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">ARTIST ROOMS</a>
Acquired jointly with the National Galleries of Scotland through The d'Offay Donation with assistance from the <a href="/search?gid=999999967" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">National Heritage Memorial Fund</a> and the <a href="/search?gid=999999968" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Art Fund</a> 2008
<div><p><span>This portrait is one of a pair of works based on a Polaroid photograph taken by Warhol of the artist Man Ray (1890–1976), a central figure in the dada and surrealist movements.</span></p><p><b> </b></p><p><span>The photograph was taken on 30 November 1973 in Paris, where Man Ray lived. An audiotape recording of the modelling session attests that Warhol specifically requested Man Ray to hold his cigar in his mouth, remove his glasses, and keep his hands away from his face (Goldsmith, Wolf and Koestenbaum 2004, p.235). The painting and its pair were made in 1974 in Warhol’s New York studio, known as the Factory, on unstretched canvas that had been rolled out flat on the studio floor. One of Warhol’s assistants, Rupert Smith, helped the artist with screen-printing. This work shows Man Ray with a yellow jacket against a green background, while its pair shows the jacket as predominantly blue against a deep red background. There are several places where these colours blur together and overlap, serving variously to obscure and emphasise facial details. Following the screen-printing process, Warhol made additions by hand using broad paintbrushes that have left the surface of both canvases swathed in thick, visible brush strokes.</span></p><p><b> </b></p><p><span>Although the majority of Warhol’s portraits from this time were commissions and featured the rich and famous, he also made non-commissioned portraits of fellow artists for whom he had great respect. In a self-recorded video diary made in 1976 Warhol claimed that he ‘only really loved him [Man Ray] for his name, to be truthful … his name was the best thing about him’ (Goldsmith, Wolf and Koestenbaum 2004, p.231), though other evidence suggests that Warhol had admired Man Ray for a long time. In the early years of his career Warhol collected Man Ray’s photographs and prints, and the older artist’s painting Peinture feminine 1954 (private collection) was hung prominently in the sitting room of Warhol’s New York townhouse.</span></p><p><span>The heavily worked brushstrokes in Man Ray indicate that Warhol spent some time and energy perfecting it, and are similar to those visible in portraits of his mother, for example Julia Warhola 1974 (Leo Castelli Gallery, New York). The critic and art historian Carter Ratcliff has argued that this unusual formal feature attests to the importance Warhol placed on this work and the ‘convincing emotion’ he felt toward the subject (Ratcliff 1983, p.72).</span></p><p><span>Further reading</span></p><p><span>Carter Ratcliff, Andy Warhol, New York 1983, reproduced p.167.</span></p><p><span>Kenneth Goldsmith, Reva Wolf and Wayne Koestenbaum, I'll Be Your Mirror: The Selected Andy Warhol Interviews: 1962–1987, New York 2004, pp.229–32.</span></p><p><span>Oliver Lurz</span></p><p><span>January 2012</span></p></div>
Summary
2024-05-31T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<p>In the early 1970s Warhol began to accept regular commissions to paint the portraits of the rich and famous. However, as well as commissions, Warhol painted a number of portraits of people he admired, especially other artists. Man Ray, the American photographer and Dada artist, was one of his heroes, so much so that, when he could afford it, Warhol acquired a number of his photographs, paintings and early books. This portrait-diptych of Man Ray is based on a Polaroid photograph he took of him, cigar in mouth, in 1973. As with the portraits of his mother and other people he felt close to, these portraits of Man Ray are among the most painterly and heavily-worked Warhol ever painted.</p>

Online caption
2009-04-16T00:00:00
online-caption
ONLINE_CAPTION
adults artist, multi-media arts and entertainment body cigar clothing and personal items colour emotions, concepts and ideas formal qualities hat, cap head / face individuals: male leisure and pastimes man Man Ray named individuals objects people photographic portraits recreational activities repetition smoking work and occupations