图片文件尺寸: 3788×5000 px
《安格尔的小提琴》，1924年-曼雷
-The Violon d\'Ingres depicts the nude back of Kiki de Montparnasse, the 法国艺术家 model, actress and nightclub singer who permeated and helped shape Parisian culture of the 1920s. She is posed in accordance with the Valpinçon Bather by Jean Auguste Dominque Ingres hanging famously in the Louvre. The curves of her figure mimic those of a violin, and as such, Man Ray superimposes sound holes characteristic of the musical instrument onto the small of her back. Indeed, the colloquial 法国艺术家 saying \"violon d\'Ingres\" refers to a hidden talent eclipsed by one\'s primary skill--derived from the little known fact that Ingres was an accomplished violinist in addition to his success as an artist. A further reading of the image alludes to the inherent sexual nuances--presenting this actress in the guise of the 19th century Orientalist femme fatale and thereby opening her up to the predatory male gaze or to being \"played\" like an instrument.
The source of this multi-dimensional title reveals Man Ray\'s wit and knowledge of painting and the history of art, as well as demonstrating his status as a forerunner of conceptual art. Arturo Schwarz writes that \"A photograph thus became an exciting Surrealist image by the coupling of two distant realities\' that transformed the woman\'s torso into the body of a violin. In addition--and this was probably what mattered to Man Ray--he was hinting at the fact that photography was for him merely his violon d\'Ingres; his real interests lay elsewhere\" (A. Schwarz, The Rigour of Imagination, New York, 1977, p. 281).
As a leading figure in the DADA and Surrealist movements, Man Ray paved the way for conceptual art practice as it developed in the course of the 20th century. His advancements in photography, namely through photocollage and in his self-proclaimed rayographs (cameraless photography), represent only a small piece of his contribution to the art world.
