Pulling It Out of a Hat: Picabia, Lanson and Man Ray's Cover for Littérature

Abstract

The magician’s top hat, standardized handwriting, calligraphic flourish and ink blot of Man Ray’s cover for the new series of Littérature in 1922 open questions of style in both fashion and writing. The cover’s emblem-like visual components resonate not only with questions of style and cultural sophistication in such magazines as Monsieur and La Gazette du bon ton, but also with contemporary Dada squabbles with Cubism, and with a Paris Dada bugbear” Gustave Lanson’s magisterial text, Histoire de la littérature française (1894). In his 1924 Manifeste André Breton deftly capitalized on Lansonism in order to turn it against its own premises and devices. Finally, Man Ray’s emblem points to questions at the time of authenticity, authority and falsity.