The Eye That Sees Everything

Prints and Drawings

1919

Man Ray
American, 1890-1976

In 1918, in New York, Man Ray decided to paint without making use of any of the traditional tools of the painter-neither an easel, nor brushes, palette, or tubes of color. Instead, he used a spray gun, and he called the resulting paintings “aerographs.” The All-Seeing Eye, while not an “aerograph,” is informed by Man Ray’s experiments with industrial techniques.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Prints and Drawings

Artist: Man Ray (Emmanuel Radnitzky)
Title: The Eye That Sees Everything
Place: United States (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1919
Medium: Airbrush and brush and gouache on tan wood-pulp laminate board
Inscriptions: Signed and dated lower right, in pen and black ink: "May Ray 1919"
Dimensions: 30.5 × 24.6 cm (12 1/16 × 9 11/16 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Mr. Frank B. Hubachek
Reference Number: 2021.339

Possibly, New York, Daniel Gallery, “Man Ray,” Nov. 17-Dec. 1, 1919, cat. 4.
Art Institute of Chicago, “Modern in America: Works on Paper, 1900-1950s,” Jan. 30-May 3, 2010, no cat.

Given by the artist to Mary Reynolds (1891–1950) [letter from Elizabeth Humes to Frank Hubachek dated Feb. 5, 1964 and letter from Hubachek to AIC Registration staff dated Feb. 17, 1964, both in curatorial file]; to Reynolds estate (Frank Hubachek (1894–1986) and Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968) co-executors), 1950–1963 (lent by the estate to Reynolds’s friend, Elizabeth Humes, Rome, 1950–1963) [Humes affidavit dated Sept. 10, 1963 and Hubachek letter dated Feb. 17, 1964, both in curatorial file]; given by Frank Hubachek, Chicago, to the Art Institute of Chicago for the Mary Reynolds Collection, 1963 [work arrived at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1963 (RX4447, dated Oct. 29, 1963) but was never formally accessioned].

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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