The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of May 15, 2025

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
(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

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.
  • (Galerie Rive Droit, Paris); Lockwood Thompson [by 1975].
  • Dorfman, John. "(secret) + forumulas2, Art & Antiques (March 2015). Mentioned p. 86.
    Penrose, Roland. Man Ray (Boston: New York Graphic Society, 1975). Mentioned p. 167; reproduced p.
    Schwarz, Arturo. Man Ray: The Rigour of Imagination (London: Thames and Hudson, 1977). Mentioned p. 79.
    Grossman, Wendy and Edouard Sebline, eds., Man Ray : Human Equations : A Journey from Mathematics to Shakespeare. (Ostfildern, Germany: Hatje Cantz, 2015). Mentioned pp.157, 174-75; reproduced cover (detail), pp. 159, 224.
    Turner, Evan H. “The Year in Review for 1992.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 80, no. 2 (February 1993): 38–79. Mentioned: p. 67 www.jstor.org
  • Man Ray - Human Equations: A Journey from Mathematics to Shakespeare . The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC (organizer) (February 7-May 10, 2015); Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen, Denmark (June 11-September 20, 2015); Israel Museum, 91710 Jerusalem, Israel (October 20, 2015-January 23, 2016).
    The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC (2/7/2015 - 5/10/2015), Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen (6/11/2015 - 9/20/2015), and The Israel Museum, Jerusalem (10/20/2015 - 1/23/2016): "Man Ray - Human Equations: A Journey from Mathematics to Shakespeare"
    Selected Acquisitions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 9-April 11, 1993).
  • {{cite web|title=Shakespearean Equation: Hamlet|url=false|author=Man Ray|year=1949|access-date=15 May 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1992.301