Surrealist Hands on poem by Man Ray (1890 - 1976) and Joyce Reeves.
c. 1958
Pen on typewritten poem by Joyce Reeves.
In February 1958, Joyce Reeves typed this poem for Man Ray, celebrating his Abat-jour surrealist lampshade. Reeves’ words beautifully reference the flow of life and love as a spiral in its many forms.
A poet’s flexible mind, happy, alive to flowing
A lover’s spirit, answering, trembling
A love dance
Six months later, on Man Ray’s birthday, she gave him the poem.
Man Ray responds on the same sheet. In ink, he draws a pair of hands alongside a spiral down the middle of the page, uniting both of their hands. The poem and drawing become a conversation between two artists.
The hands are particularly evocative. Throughout Man Ray’s imagery, the hand could become both a fragment of the body and an enigmatic Surrealist sign. Intimate, tactile and strangely detached from its surroundings. Here, his drawing seems to reach into Reeves’ poem, giving physical form to its sense of movement and desire.
Reeves was Roland Penrose’s private secretary, research assistant and mistress from the early 1950’s into the early 1970’s. Penrose and Man Ray were close friends within the Surrealist circle, and Man Ray was a frequent visitor to the Penroses’ home, Farleys House. What remains is something unusually personal. A poem written for Man Ray, returned to its author’s world through his own hand. Words, spiral and gesture occupy the same sheet, preserving not simply an image but a moment of exchange between two members of the Surrealist circle.
Provenance
Forum Auctions, London. May 2019. Lot 314.
Private Collection, London. Acquired from the above.
Surrealist Hands on poem by Man Ray (1890 - 1976) and Joyce Reeves.
c. 1958
Pen on typewritten poem by Joyce Reeves.
In February 1958, Joyce Reeves typed this poem for Man Ray, celebrating his Abat-jour surrealist lampshade. Reeves’ words beautifully reference the flow of life and love as a spiral in its many forms.
A poet’s flexible mind, happy, alive to flowing
A lover’s spirit, answering, trembling
A love dance
Six months later, on Man Ray’s birthday, she gave him the poem.
Man Ray responds on the same sheet. In ink, he draws a pair of hands alongside a spiral down the middle of the page, uniting both of their hands. The poem and drawing become a conversation between two artists.
The hands are particularly evocative. Throughout Man Ray’s imagery, the hand could become both a fragment of the body and an enigmatic Surrealist sign. Intimate, tactile and strangely detached from its surroundings. Here, his drawing seems to reach into Reeves’ poem, giving physical form to its sense of movement and desire.
Reeves was Roland Penrose’s private secretary, research assistant and mistress from the early 1950’s into the early 1970’s. Penrose and Man Ray were close friends within the Surrealist circle, and Man Ray was a frequent visitor to the Penroses’ home, Farleys House. What remains is something unusually personal. A poem written for Man Ray, returned to its author’s world through his own hand. Words, spiral and gesture occupy the same sheet, preserving not simply an image but a moment of exchange between two members of the Surrealist circle.
Provenance
Forum Auctions, London. May 2019. Lot 314.
Private Collection, London. Acquired from the above.
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