Obstruction

Man Ray American

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 911

Man Ray worked in a wide range of media, including photography, painting, and sculpture, often blurring the boundaries between these practices. Obstruction, an assemblage of sixty-three wood coat hangers, is an example of a type of artwork that Dada artist Marcel Duchamp called a readymade, a term that suggests Man Ray's appropriation and manipulation of pre-existing, common objects. The sculpture playfully mimics a chandelier, but, as the hangers seemingly divide and multiply, Obstruction quickly evolves into a dense tangle of overlapping forms. Cast shadows serve as distorted immaterial extensions of its physical presence. Man Ray first created Obstruction in 1920, but the present work belongs to an edition of fifteen reproductions he created in 1961 for an important exhibition of kinetic art.

Obstruction, Man Ray (American, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1890–1976 Paris), 63 wooden coat hangers

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Obstruction, Man Ray (American, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1890–1976 Paris), 63 wooden coat hangers
Obstruction, Man Ray (American, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1890–1976 Paris), 63 wooden coat hangers

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