The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced today a landmark gift of 188 works by 37 of the most important figures in the history of avant-garde art, including a major collection of works by Man Ray (1890–1976) as well as works by Jean Arp (1886–1966), Jean Crotti (1878–1958), Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968), Suzanne Duchamp (1889–1963), Max Ernst (1891–1976), Francis Picabia (1879–1953), Kurt Schwitters (1887–1948), and others. A promised gift from Met Trustee John Pritzker, The Bluff Collection, as it is named, features collages, paintings, photographs, objects, and works on paper and is augmented by an equally rich collection of rare exhibition catalogues and other publications related to the revolutionary art movements of Dada and Surrealism.
“John Pritzker’s remarkable collection of works by Man Ray, alongside works by artists in Man Ray’s close inner circle who were critically involved in the making of Dada and Surrealism, is truly unparalleled. It enhances our ability to offer a profound, more comprehensive view of these outstanding artists and enigmatic trailblazers of modernism whose bold and influential experimentation across media continues to fascinate and inspire,” said Max Hollein, The Met’s Marina Kellen French Director and Chief Executive Officer. “John is an exceptional friend of the arts, a major supporter of The Met, and a most generous philanthropist; his concern is always what is best for the Museum and this clearly is the very best. This incredible promised gift arrives at a pivotal moment as we expand and invigorate our holdings in preparation for the opening of the Tang Wing for modern and contemporary art, and it further cements The Met as an essential destination for experiencing the full sweep of art history—from antiquity to the art of today.”
Born from the radical social, political, scientific, and cultural transformations of the first decades of the 20th century, and hastened by the destruction and upheaval of war, the revolutionary artistic and literary movements of Dada and Surrealism aimed to define art and its role in the world. Dada artists shared the wish, as expressed by French artist Jean (Hans) Arp, “to destroy the hoaxes of reason and to discover an unreasoned order.” Surrealists would expand from this, looking to the work of Sigmund Freud and Karl Marx to overthrow what they perceived as the oppressive rationalism of modern society by accessing the sur réalisme (superior reality) of the subconscious. As André Breton, poet and chief protagonist of the group in Paris proposed, Surrealism and its exploration of dreams, the unconscious mind, and the irrational could alter perceptions of the world and radically change it. A testament to the boundary-breaking and revolutionary spirit of these movements, the promised gift of Met Trustee Pritzker offers an exciting opportunity for the Museum to transform the very nature of its holdings in modern art.
David Breslin, Leonard A. Lauder Curator in Charge, Modern and Contemporary Art, added, "For an artist as hard to pin down as Man Ray, John Pritzker captured the best of him in this collection. Man Ray and the artists included in the collection are some of the great experimenters, thinkers, and provocateurs of early modernism; this astounding collection traces the restlessness of Man Ray’s practice as well as the influences shared across a vibrant community of makers. As we create our plans for The Met's new wing for modern and contemporary art, the living legacy of Dada and Surrealism will be alive in our displays and thinking, thanks to John's tremendous generosity and goodwill that includes both gifts of art and research support."
The John Pritzker Family Fund has augmented the promised gift of art with support for a new research program at The Met. Named after the collection, which refers to the spirit of the movements it represents, the Bluff Collaborative for Research on Dada and Surrealist Art is an interdisciplinary initiative to support new research and programming. Building on the legacy of Dada and Surrealism, it will advance fresh thinking about the power of art and ideas in society today.
Trustee Pritzker said, “I've long been interested in the period between the world wars and the exciting community of artists involved in Dada and Surrealism. As I've built the collection, Man Ray has been a central figure, especially as a person who moved between groups and connected ideas. Artists in his circle, such as Marcel Duchamp and Francis Picabia, were, like Man Ray, instigators and innovators. Together, this group broke down barriers of what defined a painting, sculpture, text, or photograph, and more—what art itself could be. I am thrilled to share the collection, especially at this historic and groundbreaking moment for The Met. The Museum’s world-class scholarship, curatorial vision, and conservation research make it, and the upcoming Tang Wing, the ideal place for the collection.”
Assembled by Pritzker beginning in the mid-1990s, The Bluff Collection includes singular examples of Man Ray’s groundbreaking work, including Le violon d'Ingres (1924). This beguiling image depicts Man Ray's companion, the artist and performer Kiki de Montparnasse (Alice Prin), seated with her head turned to the side and with the fabric wrapped around her torso fallen away to reveal the sound holes of a violin on her lower back. Man Ray described this version as “a combination of a photo and a rayograph.”
Other notable images include Torso (Retour á la raison) (1923), another photograph of Kiki, captured as projections of light through a lace curtain move across her torso; Noire et blanche (1926), which pairs Kiki with smoothed hair and porcelain face with an African Baule-style mask; and L'homme (1918–20), in which an outsized eggbeater is made to stand in for the body of a man. Breakthrough collages include the semi-autobiographic Trans Atlantic (1921), and landmark objects include the pseudoscientific Catherine Barometer (1920), which purports to forecast a change in either air pressure or the unpredictable moods of the collector and modern art advocate Katherine Dreier.
The Bluff Collection also includes 11 works on paper and two portfolios by Marcel Duchamp, including the very first issued Monte Carlo Bond (1924), which memorably features the artist with a soapy head fashioned into devilish horns against a roulette wheel.
Another jewel is Max Ernst's outlandish self-portrait collage titled The Punching Bag or The Immortality of Buonarroti (1920), intended for the abandoned almanac project of Tristan Tzara, called Dadaglobe and widely reproduced since.
Among the great paintings is the enigmatic Dream of Tobias (1917) by Giorgio de Chirico, which was once owned by the great British Surrealist patron Edward James. Before this, however, the painting was installed in the famed Bureau of Surrealism Research in Paris in 1924, witness to the dream seances and other investigations carried out by the group, led by André Breton.
There is also Suzanne Duchamp's Radiation de deux seuls éloignés (Radiation of Two Solitary Beings Apart) (1916–20), a direct challenge to the art world's outdated modes of representation and conventional materials. The large collage employs symbols and structures from the world of science and technology to explore human relationships in the modern ageIn addition to photographic works by Man Ray, The Bluff Collection includes photographs by Lee Miller, Charles Sheeler, and Edward Steichen, among others, and ceramics by Beatrice Wood. These holdings are amplified by an important grouping of over 100 books, manifestos, journals, posters, and ephemera related to the most important moments of Dada and Surrealism. One of the most significant is a unique edition of Georges Hugnet's Petite anthologie poétique du surréalisme (1934), which was owned by writer Paul Éluard and embellished with personal correspondence and photographs from almost every artist represented in the monograph. In total, The Bluff Collection is a vibrant testament to the creative collaborations between artists at this time.
As noted, a major component of Pritzker’s collection is dedicated to American artist Man Ray. A self-described "enigma," he was a visionary known for his radical experimentation that pushed the limits of art. Having started his career as a painter, Man Ray took up photography in 1915 when, after struggling to find someone who could make satisfying photographic reproductions of his paintings, he decided to make his own. In the camera, he found a tool to challenge the conventions and hierarchies of art and transform everyday objects into thought-provoking works of art. Through his inventive use of the photographic medium, Man Ray established a unique place for himself in both the Dada and Surrealist circles.
Thirty-five works from Pritzker’s promised gift will be included in Man Ray: When Objects Dream, the first major exhibition to examine the artist’s media-crossing experimentation through one of his most significant bodies of work, the rayograph—a type of cameraless photograph that he revived in the winter of 1921. Featuring approximately 160 rayographs, paintings, objects, prints, works on paper, films, and photographs, the presentation will be on view September 14, 2025, through February 1, 2026. The exhibition is curated by Stephanie D’Alessandro, Leonard A. Lauder Curator of Modern Art and Senior Research Coordinator in Modern and Contemporary Art, and Stephen C. Pinson, Curator in the Department of Photographs, with the assistance of Micayla Bransfield, Research Associate.
The Bluff Collaborative for Research on Dada and Surrealism is an interdisciplinary initiative led by D'Alessandro that brings together the museum, archive, and studio to support new research on the revolutionary art movements of Dada and Surrealism, and in doing so, advances fresh perspectives on the power of art and ideas in society today. Through its shared program of study, lectures, performances, and more, the Bluff Collaborative aims to inspire artists, scholars, and Museum visitors to find new meaning in history and to approach the uncertainties and challenges of contemporary times with curiosity, experimentalism, and a spirit of emergent collaboration. For its inaugural year, the Bluff Collaborative program will be dedicated to the artist Man Ray. Future research programs will be announced annually.
