Jan Svenungsson
My Man Rays

My Man Rays: 1989(?)


"What makes an artwork an artwork?

At the time of his death, Man Ray's studio on rue Férou was full of things. There were famous paintings with labels from various exhibitions pasted on the back, photographs carefully collected in folders and boxes, and peculiar things which, furnished with titles and signature, had become "objects" and which have since been discussed in countless books. There were rags which were initially used to wipe brushes on, and which were later framed and turned into art.

But there were also an assortment of strange things which were never given names, constructions which were never defined, boards which were used to get rid of excess color, contact sheets of negatives which were never printed, prints which were never shown, short film fragments which no one knew existed, lines drawn on sheets of a sketch pad which don't bear a single signature – and which were perhaps never meant to have one. No one knows. No one is going to know.

After November 18, 1976, there is no one to ask."

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