Histoire naturelle

Man Ray

1930 · Gelatin silver print · Photographs

A painter, sculptor, and photographer, Man Ray was associated with the Surrealists in Paris throughout the 1920s and 1930s. In keeping with the movement’s desire to defamiliarize the everyday through found objects, he has transformed this petrified sea horse— once moist and supple—from small to monumental, active to static, and harmless to monstrous.

Artist

Man Ray

Date

1930

Medium

Gelatin silver print

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Ford Motor Company Collection, Gift of Ford Motor Company and John C. Waddell, 1987