Saint Laurent Rive Droite presents Objects of my Affection, an exclusive exhibition dedicated to the work of Man Ray, curated by Anthony Vaccarello. Saint Laurent Rive Droite unveils a rarely seen selection of the artist’s iconic creations.
Emmanuel Radnitzky, known as Man Ray, was an American painter, photographer, and filmmaker. During the early stages of his career, he experimented with painting, influenced by the Cubism and Abstract movements, and with photography. It was in Paris, while joining Marcel Duchamp in the avant-garde organisation Société Anonyme, that Man Ray developed his rayographs.
Man Ray was a key figure in Dadaism, a movement founded in Zurich by Hugo Ball and Emmy Hennings, based on the rejection of logic, reason, aestheticism, and bourgeois sensibilities. The movement counted the contribution of various international personalities in the creation of anti-art concepts that acted against the pre-established principles of the time, heavily impacted by the context of the First World War. Dadaism capitalized on irrationality and nonsense, spanning its reach through performance, literary journals, manifestos, visual art, and sound media, hand in hand with the Surrealist movement.
Building on these principles, Man Ray’s Surrealist practice explored the unconscious and unexpected associations across both photography and objects.
A selection of Man Ray’s objects will be on display, including iconic works such as Red Hot Iron (1966), a surrealist sculpture that transforms a simple iron into a ready-made object charged with symbolic meaning.
This selection further includes Boîte à Lettres (1965), which combines a black zinc letterbox with seven hand-painted ceramic letters, articulating themes of communication and intimacy.
These works, among others in the exhibition, encourage a re-evaluation of the function of everyday objects. They reflect Man Ray’s surrealist approach, transforming ordinary items into forms that are both poetic and ambiguous, while examining the complex relationship between the artist, the object, and the viewer.
To celebrate the exhibition, Anthony Vaccarello reinterprets Man Ray’s iconic sculpture Haltères / Square Dumbbells, originally designed in the 1930s.
Conceived as an ironic artwork, the piece transforms a tool of physical effort into a purely contemplative object, playing on the double meaning of its title and the complete loss of its utilitarian function.
Available in two editions - matte black metal and mirror polished - each reissue is individually signed, presented in a luxurious case, and offered for sale as a collectible work of art.
© Man Ray 2015 Trust / Adagp, Paris 2026
EXHIBITION DATES:
SAINT LAURENT RIVE DROITE PARIS
16.01.26 - 11.03.26
213 RUE SAINT-HONORÉ, PARIS
SAINT LAURENT MONTENAPOLEONE, MILAN
17.04.26 - 27.04.26
VIA MONTENAPOLEONE 8, MILAN
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