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Artwork Page for Shakespearean Equation: Hamlet

Details / Information for Shakespearean Equation: Hamlet

Shakespearean Equation: Hamlet

1949
(American, 1890–1976)
America
oil on canvas
Framed: 55.9 x 66 x 3.9 cm (22 x 26 x 1 9/16 in.); Unframed: 40.5 x 51 cm (15 15/16 x 20 1/16 in.)
Bequest of Lockwood Thompson 1992.301
© 2013 Man Ray Trust / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris
Location: 225 German Expressionism & Surrealism
Copyright
This artwork is known to be under copyright.

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Did You Know?

Man Ray's tombstone is inscribed, "Unconcerned but not indifferent."

Description

Man Ray's painting belongs to a series of works inspired by three-dimensional mathematical models he encountered at a scientific institute in Paris. With a desire to create surreal and cryptic juxtapositions, he titled these paintings after plays by William Shakespeare. Although their literary associations appear random, May Ray explained that, in the case of Hamlet, the mathematical form reminded him of a skull and breast, respectively referencing the characters of Yorick and Ophelia.
Oil painting of a white triangular pyramid with softened corners floating against a dark background. The side closest to the viewer is bathed in shadow, and the two other visible sides in light. The side on our upper left is traced in yellow, the lower corners webbed in blue, and the lower right corner additionally flecked with brown.

Shakespearean Equation: Hamlet

1949

Man Ray

(American, 1890–1976)
America

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