With controversy swirling throughout the pristine floors of Sotheby’s due to a shakeup following a losing battle with an activist investor, a change in leadership, and a pricey acquisition of an art advisory firm, the spring Photograph auction exhibition is now on view.

The highest-ticket item is a photogram, Rayograph by Man Ray, from 1924 (below). The print is annotated in pencil on the reverse, 'Original Rayograph' and numbered '32' in pencil and with the photographer's '31 bis, Rue Campagne Première' studio and copyright stamps. The auction estimate is $250,000-$350,000. The catalogue note reads:

This early Rayograph was made in 1924, just two years after Man Ray first began creating photograms. Composed in his darkroom, without the use of a camera, Man Ray’s deliberate placement of a ball bearing, match, and feather element—which would have been placed on, or held just above, the photographic paper during exposure—has resulted here in a supremely graphic composition. 

The most prominent element in this Rayograph is the glowing circular form of a metal ball bearing. The sturdiness of this industrial object – with its uniform repetition and clean curves of the inner and outer bearing race – is juxtaposed with the ethereal quality of the wispy feather placed just below. While seemingly an unconventional prop selected at random, the ball bearing is an object that appears in several of Man Ray’s photographs. 

At least two other Rayographs display its distinctive circular outline. The first, a Rayograph dated ‘1923,’ featuring a feather, ball bearing, egg, spring, and matches and matchbox, is now in the collection of the Yale University Art Gallery (L’Ecotais90). The second, a similar composition from 1924, with ball bearing, matches, and another unidentified object, is in the collection of the NyCarlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen (L’Ecotais 105).    

From the beginning, Man Ray’s photograms were celebrated by many of his fellow artists. His Rayographs appealed to Dadaists, who loved the quality of chance involved in their production, and to Surrealists, who found them equally compelling for their enigmatic dreamlike quality. The allure and ingenuity of Man Ray’s photograms, however, was appreciated well beyond the art world. In an article entitled Some Photographs Made Without a Camera: Man Ray’s Masterpieces in Velvet Black and Grey in the Early March 1925 issue of Vogue, several Rayographs were illustrated, including the example now in the Glyptotek collection. 

The exhibition continues through noon on Sunday, April 3, when the auction takes place. Sotheby’s, 1334 York Avenue, NY, NY. Info