Torse (Retour à la raison) (Torso [Return to Reason])
This photograph relates to the final scene of Man Ray’s 1923 film Retour à la raison. In that sequence, after an array of rayograph images rush across the screen, two rotating objects appear: a player-piano roll that mimics Lampshade and a hanging box divider. Kiki de Montparnasse’s torso follows, similarly turning from side to side as a lace-curtain pattern creeps across her body. This chain of animated things—from tacks and pins to torso—underscores the body’s transition into objecthood. The headless form functions as a site of the artist’s literal and figural projections.
Artwork Details
- Title: Torse (Retour à la raison) (Torso [Return to Reason])
- Artist: Man Ray (American, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1890–1976 Paris)
- Date: 1923
- Medium: Gelatin silver print, ca. 1935
- Dimensions: 8 1/4 × 6 3/8 in. (21 × 16.2 cm)
- Classification: Photographs
- Credit Line: Bluff Collection, Promised Gift of John A. Pritzker
- Rights and Reproduction: © Man Ray 2015 Trust / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY / ADAGP, Paris 2025
- Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art
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