solarized, signed in ink on the image, 'Fiori,' date, and numerical notations in pencil on the reverse, 1931

Collection of Andy Warhol

Sotheby's New York, Collection of Andy Warhol, 29 April 1988, Sale 6000 (Vol. V), Lot 2930

Collection of Alexandra R. Marshall, New Yor𝔉k, acquired from the above

Acquired from Christie's New York, 22 October 2002, Sale🥃 1135, Lot 109

Man Ray (New York: Alexander Iolas Gallery, 1974), p. 71 (possibly this print)

Maurizio Fagiolo, Man Ray, Opere 1914-1973 (Rome: Il Collezꦏionista d’Arte Contem💞poranea, 1973), p. 69 (possibly this print)

Man Ray: Photographs, 1920-1934 (New York, 1975), pl. 21

Arturo Schwarz, Man Ray: The Rigour of Imagination (New York, 1977), pl. 441, p. 266

Photographs by Man Ray: 105 Works, 1920-1934 (New York, 1979), p. 21

Roland Penrose, Man Ray (Boston, 1975), p. 117

Man Ray: Photographien Paris 1920-1934 (Munich, 1980), pl. 21

Arturo Schwarz, Man Ray, Carte Varie e Variabili (Milan, 1983), pl. 129, p. 89

Man Ray: 1890-1976, Photographien (Munich, 1996), pl. 123

Emmanuelle de l'Ecotais and Alain Sayag, eds., Man Ray: Photography and Its Double (California, 1998), p. 60

Erin C. Garcia, Man Ray in Paris (The J. Paul Getty Museum, 2011), pl. 56, p. 99

This photograph is printed on heavy double-weight paper with a slightly, and pleasingly, warm tonality. The print exhibits a wonderful range of tones, from the deep black outlines of the flowers (accentuated by solarization) to the creamy highlights of the blossoms. All of these values are expertly handled in this bravura and sensitively-rendered print. In raking light, a fine patina of silvering is visible in the dark areas of the stems and the lower right calla. There are a few expertly applied deposits of original retouching, most of which are only barely visible. In high raking light, a soft linear crease, likely a result of hinging, is barely visible in the upper right corner. Man Ray has signed this print in ink with a ballpoint pen on the image. On the reverse of the print, the following notations are written in an unidentified hand in pencil: 'Fiori,' '1931,' 28' (circled), and '38' (with upwards directional arrow). In the upper corners on the reverse are adhesive and paper remnants, suggesting that this print was at one time affixed to a mount. Also on the reverse are 2 paper-tape hinge remnants at the lower left and right edges. There is insignificant soiling on the reverse.
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Man Ray’s now-iconic study of a profusion of calla lilies, in which the flowers are transformed and electrified by solarization, demonstrates the photographer’s unfailingly experimental approach to his medium.  Once in the collection of Andy Warhol, this rare early print links two of the great artists of the twentieth century. 

This image owes its striking appearance to the photographer’s masterful handling of the darkroom technique of solarization.  Like the photogram—which Man Ray adopted and made his own—solarization is simple in principle but difficult to master.  To solarize a photograph, the print is exposed to light during development.  The duration and intensity of the light, as well as the stage of development during which the light is introduced, impact the final appearance of the print.  Solarization’s effects include a selective reversal and/or intensification of tones.  In Calla Lilies, Man Ray has employed the technique to create deep black outlines, accentuating t💃he stems and the iridescent positive/negative modu﷽lation of tones in the blossoms.  The technique elevates an already elegant image into a Surreal account of its subjects.  Of solarization, Man Ray said ‘the technique enabled me to get away from photography, to get away from banality, what I seek above all is to escape from banality, and here was a chance to produce a photograph that would not look like a photograph’ (quoted in Schwarz, p. 282). 

This print was owned originally by Andy Warhol and was sold in these rooms in the historic auction of his collection in 1988.  Warhol was well-known as an admirer of Man Ray, and built a significant collection of his photographs, paintings, drawings, and objects.  The Sotheby’s auction of Warhol’s collection featured more works by Man Ray than by any other single artist.  In 1973, the two artists met in Man Ray’s Paris studio, where Warhol photographed Man Ray for a portrait commission initiated by the young Italian dealer Luciano Anselmino.  Anselmino, a great champion of Man Ray and the publisher of his First Steps portfolio in 1972, had been introduced to Warhol by Alexandre Iolas, one of Warhol’s dealers.  During the session in Paris, Warhol took a series of Polaroids of Man Ray.  One of these images was used by Warhol as the template for a series of painted portraits of the photographer, in a variety of formats, paid for by Anselmino and debuted in Iolas’s gallery in Milan in 1974 (cf. The Andy Warhol Catalogue Raisonné: Paintings and Sculptures 1970-1974, Vol. 3, pp. 386-99). 

Calla Lilies was included by Man Ray in his first monograph, the seminal Photographs by Man Ray 1920 Paris 1934, funded and published by the collector Jame༒s Thrall Soby.  As of this writing, only three other early prints of this image have been located in institutional collections: The Museum of Modern Art, a gift of James Thrall Soby; the Bibliotheque Nationale de France, the print used for the 1934 book; and the J. Paul Getty Museum, originally from the collection of Arnold Crane.   

Andy Warhol may have acquired this photograph from Alexandre Iolas or Luciano Anselmino.  Many of Warhol’s Man Ray pieces were purchased from Iolas, and Calla Lilies was illustrated in the dealer’s 1974 catalogue of Man Ray’s work.  The Italian ‘Fiori’ on the reverse of this print suggests that it may also been handled by Anselmino. This very print appears to be the one reproduced in the catalogue for the 1973 Man Ray Opere 1914-1973 exhibition in Rom♌e, which was organized with the assistance of Anselmino.