*Click on the triptych to enlarge
* Man Ray was an admirer of the paintings of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres and made a series of photographs, inspired by Ingres's languorous nudes, of the model Kiki in a turban. Painting the f-holes of a stringed instrument onto the photographic print and then rephotographing the print, Man Ray altered what was originally a classical nude (entitled La Baigneuse by Ingres). He also added the title Le Violon d'Ingres (1924), a French idiom that means 'hobby'. The transformation of Kiki's body into a musical instrument with the crude addition of a few brushstrokes makes the original a humorous image, but her armless form is also disturbing to contemplate. The title seems to suggest that, while playing the violin was Ingres's hobby, toying with Kiki was a pastime of Man Ray. The picture maintains a tension between objectification and appreciation of the female form; hopefully, my addition of the third image (though not my original work), on the left, brings that appreciation up to date.
