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Thumbnail-size images of copyrighted artworks are displayed under fair use, in accordance with guidelines recommended by the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for the Visual Arts, published by the College Art Association in February 2015.
Les Amoreux neckpiece
1975
Object Place: Milan, Italy
Medium/Technique
18 kt gold
Dimensions
Overall: 14.6 x 13.7 x 2.2 cm (5 3/4 x 5 3/8 x 7/8 in.)
Credit Line
The Daphne Farago Collection
Accession Number2017.4918
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsJewelry, Contemporary Art, Americas
ClassificationsJewelry / Adornment – Necklaces and neck bands
Artist-designed jewelry differs from studio jewelry in that it is designed by an artist (with drawings and perhaps a model), but made by jewelry artisans in a workshop. Various twentieth-century painters and sculptors have turned their hands to designing and making jewelry, and their efforts lent prestige to the concept of "art to wear." The large floating lips in Man Ray's collage A L'heure de l'observatoire, les amoureux (1932-34) provided inspiration for the combination pendant and brooch of the same name.
DescriptionThin gold cord with detachable pin/pendant in the form of a pair of lips.
Signed
Incised on lower edge of lip: "10/12 Man Ray 75 les Amoreux"
Marks
Marked inside lower lip "M R 9 [two other marks illegible]"
ProvenanceMay 29, 2004, sold by Joan Sonnabend, Boston to Daphne Farago (b. 1924 - d. 2017), Little Compton, RI; 2017, bequest of Daphne Farago to the MFA. (Accession Date: December 14, 2017)
CopyrightGianCarlo Montebello curator of the GEM MONTEBELLO Archives