Maisons ennemies

‘[I] have two strings to my bow,’ Man Ray once stated, ‘or rather, two arrows: painting and photography’ (quoted in Enigma and Desire: Man Ray Paintings, exh. cat., New York, 2019, p. 11). Painted in 1933, Maisons ennemies dates from a prolific moment in the artist’s career during which he was pursuing his distinctive form of Surrealism in both mediums. This same year, Man Ray exhibited in the landmark Exposition surréaliste at the Galerie Pierre Colle, before travelling with Marcel Duchamp to Cadaqués and then Barcelona, where they joined Salvador Dalí and his partner, Gala. ‘It was inevitable that the continued contact with painters should keep smoldering in me my first passion – painting,’ Man Ray described his life in the 1930s. ‘Although the demands of my photographic work had increased, I was able to organize my schedule so that I could devote time to drawing and painting, if only as a relief from my daily routine. Ideas came to me that demanded a more flexible medium for their expression than the rigidity of the camera’ (Self Portrait, London, 2012, p. 254). The bright red lips of the two figure’s faces was a central motif of Man Ray’s at this time. A pair of lips floating in the sky stands as the subject of Man Ray’s great Surrealist painting, A l’heure de l'observatoire - Les amoureux (1932-1934), which he was working on at the same time.