Materials & Techniques

Materials & Techniques of Man Ray’s Le Violon d’Ingres
6:00 PM
McEvoy Auditorium, Lower Level
Smithsonian American Art Museum, National Portrait Gallery
Adult
In the late 1990s a group of photographs long attributed to the avant garde artist Man Ray were discovered to be fakes. The art world was shocked by the long running forgery operation, which had duped experts and collectors. How could this have happened? Paul Messier, a Boston-based conservator and expert in vintage photographic papers, will discuss new research into Man Ray’s techniques and materials, focusing on his investigation into an early print of the iconic Le Violon d’Ingres.