Provenance
before 1973
Man Ray, American, 1890 - 1976, sold to Arnold Crane, before 1973.
before 1973 - 1984
Arnold Crane, American, 1932 - 2014, sold to the J. Paul Getty Museum, 1984.
Not currently on view
Electricity - Kitchen (Electricite - Cuisine)
Man Ray (American, 1890 - 1976)
American
1931
Photogravure
84.XM.1000.5
19.7 × 26 cm (7 3/4 × 10 1/4 in.)
© Man Ray Trust ARS-ADAGP
In 1931 the Paris electric company CPDE commissioned Man Ray to produce a series of images promoting the personal uses of electricity. The resulting portfolio, Électricité, included pictures of the uses of electricity in each room of a house, as in Cuisine (Kitchen). The whimsical print lent a familiarity and friendliness to the mysterious power marketed by CPDE.
The Électricité portfolio included ten Rayographs reproduced as photogravures. The company released it in an edition of five hundred for distribution to top CPDE executives and special customers.
Man Ray, American, 1890 - 1976, sold to Arnold Crane, before 1973.
Arnold Crane, American, 1932 - 2014, sold to the J. Paul Getty Museum, 1984.
Krauss, Rosalind E. and Jane Livingston. L'Amour Fou: Photography and Surrealism (Washington, D.C.: Corcoran Gallery of Art; New York: Abbeville Press, 1985), p. 230.