Study for "Le Rayon Vert" (The Green Ray)

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Study for "Le Rayon Vert" (The Green Ray)

1947

Frederick Kiesler (American (born Austria-Hungary), 1890–1965)

Marcel Duchamp could not remain in Paris for the Exposition Internationale du Surréalisme in 1947 and thus supplied Kiesler with written instructions on how to execute his work Le Rayon Vert (The Green Ray) within the exhibition. Kiesler’s diagram of the installation reveals the complex optical effects that he devised to produce Duchamp’s desired visual result. Through a peephole, visitors viewed a photograph illustrating the “green-ray-effect”: a rare natural phenomenon visible at sea only at certain latitudes, when the rays of the setting or rising sun skim the surface of the water and produce a momentary emerald-green flash on the horizon.

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Object Details

Title:

Study for "Le Rayon Vert" (The Green Ray)

Date:

1947

Artist:

Frederick Kiesler (American (born Austria-Hungary), 1890–1965)

Medium:

Ink and opaque watercolor on off-white heavy wove paper

Dimensions:

Sheet: 9 15/16 x 13 5/16 inches (25.2 x 33.8 cm)

Classification:

Drawings

Credit Line:

Purchased with the Katharine Levin Farrell Fund, 1992

Accession Number:

1992-64-1

Geography:

Made in United States, North and Central America

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