Prou del Pilar (Danses-Horizons) (Primary Title)
Prou del Pilar (Former Title)
Man Ray, American, 1890 - 1976 (Artist)
This photograph was published in the Surrealist magazine Minotaure on May 12, 1934 and depicts the Spanish flamenco dancer Prou del Pilar seated on the floor, surrounded by the billowing ruffles of her dress, after completing a vigorous performance for Man Ray’s camera. In the accompanying article, “Danses-Horizons” (Dances-Horizons), Man Ray compared the folds of the seated dancer’s dress, as well as her heated flamenco routine, to “piment” (chili peppers) as an example of how “dance, considered and practiced impartially, resolves itself in a comfortably horizontal nature, with a vegetable aspect.” Another photograph from this session, entitled Explosante Fixe (Fixed Explosive), was also published in the same Minotaure issue. It shows Prou del Pilar dancing the flamenco with such intensity and velocity that her face is completely hidden behind the twisted folds of her rotating costume, rendering the image blurred and verging on complete abstraction.
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