Our paths first crossed, unknown until many years later, at an intimate yet bustling wedding reception in a south Chicago apartment. This was probably 30 years ago, perhaps even the same year a new gallery, Torno Wright, opened at the end of my street to a fanfare of Eames, heralding new changes to come. Criss-crossing breezes of chance encounters, meandering spirits, hazy focus of time and space, of enthusiasm and knowledge sought, now united again in the same city.
That same serendipity, prompting impulse and discovery, guided welcome reward in the crucible of that great industrial city, still littered with the artefacts of the American mid-century. It was within this uneven yet fertile terrain, hidden slightly below surface, that Patrick’s intuitive talent—honed first as photographer then embellished as artist—would treasure the valuable neglected as passionate collector, and then as the inspirational dealer that I was to meet again, years later in New York City.
If asked to select one word to describe Patrick, I would resist and pick two. The first would be curiosity—a fundamental essential, to stimulate inquiry and rigour in all things, both great and small, of any era or region, type or surface. Even the most fleeting survey of this selection for sale is a celebration of innovation and of inspiration—an unerring eye for the unusually exceptional, or perhaps the exceptionally unusual. The chances are, that these are indeed discoveries that you have not yet realized that you needed to make.
Mentor, would be my second word. If artefacts and objects articulate visual, cultural and historic language, then the fluency of skillful mentorship—to guide, nurture, describe and explain—releases the eloquence of murmuring histories. In this capacity Patrick is that most earnest and sincere of excellent narrators. If ever I had friends, clients or colleagues visiting New York looking for unusual inspiration, there was always the certainty that Patrick’s gallery would offer them a glimpse of the hitherto unseen or the unusually seductive, always with the reassurance of the most fascinating story waiting to be told.
Mentorship and curiosity, when balanced in equal measure, reveal the precious alchemy of a curator. And it is the duty of the mature curator to discern and detect, to cultivate change, and from there to pioneer, and to share. Innovation is never static, and the Present is already the Future. Fresh dialogs evolve, energies to be nurtured, opportunities to be guided. Renewed and re-orientated, Patrick now faces fully forward—as benefactor, interlocutor and mentor to a new, inquisitive generation of talented creators, and the quest for discovery rejuvenates.
— Simon Andrews
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Man Ray 1890–1976
Man Ray, originally known as Emmanuel Radnitzky, was an American visual artist who had a profound impact on the Dada and Surrealist movements of the 20th century. Born in 1890 in Philadelphia, he was the eldest child of Russian Jewish immigrants, who changed their surname to Ray due to prevailing anti-Semitism. Man Ray moved to Brooklyn with his family when he was seven years old and went on to graduate from the Boys' High School, where he learned the fundamentals of drafting, illustration, and painting. Although his parents initially disapproved of his pursuit of art, they eventually supported his ambition by transforming part of their home into his studio.
During his early career, Man Ray experimented with paintings and drawings influenced by 19th century styles, but he was drawn to the avant-garde art he encountered in New York City. In 1921, Man Ray relocated to Paris and became an integral part of the Montparnasse artistic community. He was an innovator in the use of photograms, which he called "rayographs," creating mysterious and surreal images that were highly regarded by fellow Dada artists like Tristan Tzara. During this period, he met and fell in love with Kiki de Montparnasse, a famous artists' model who became a prominent subject in his photography and experimental films. Man Ray's work also expanded to include readymades, ordinary objects he selected and modified, such as his iconic The Gift (1921), a flatiron with metal tacks attached to the bottom.
Man Ray was a pioneering photographer, capturing portraits of important figures like Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí, and Jean Cocteau. He was also known for his painting, sculpture, jewelry design, and filmmaking as well as collaborations with Marcel Duchamp on various projects, including the creation of kinetic art. Man Ray was likewise instrumental in helping to organize the Société Anonyme, a traveling collection considered the first museum of modern art in the United States, which was later donated to Yale University Art Gallery. During World War II, Man Ray returned to the United States and resided in Los Angeles from 1940 to 1951, focusing primarily on painting.
In 1951, Man Ray moved back to Paris and he married Juliet Browner, a trained dancer and artist's model, five years later. Over the next two decades, Man Ray continued to create art across various mediums until his death from a lung infection in 1976. His innovative techniques in photography, filmmaking, and art left an enduring legacy, earning him recognition as one of the most influential artists of the 20th century. Man Ray's work still inspires and captivates art enthusiasts, with some of his photographs achieving record-breaking prices in the art market, such as Le Violon d'Ingres (1924), which became the most expensive photograph ever sold at auction in 2022. Examples of Man Ray's work are now held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC, and other notable institutions.
Auction Results Man Ray
