Inspired by a tightrope act he had seen in a vaudeville show, Man
Ray cut pieces of colored paper into shapes corresponding to the
dancer's acrobatic movements. Dissatisfied with his work, he
noticed that the discarded scraps of paper on the floor formed an
abstract pattern. Comparing the accidental pattern with shadows
that a dancer might have cast, he incorporated it into his
composition. The figure of the tightrope dancer, the acrobat, and
the circus performer in general were often adopted by artists
throughout the last century in representations of movement,
gravity, and the body in space.
In his
autobiography, Man Ray revealed the technique employed in the
design of this picture, which he began shortly after moving into
his studio on Lexington Avenue later in 1915. Here the artist
provides a step-by-step account of the procedure that was
followed in the construction of this important painting: "The
subject was a rope dancer I had seen in a vaudeville show. I
began by making sketches of various positions of the acrobatic
forms, each on a different sheet of spectrum-colored paper, with
the idea of suggesting movement not only in the drawing but by a
transition from one color to another. I cut these out and
arranged the forms into sequence before I began the final
painting. After several changes in my composition I was less and
less satisfied. It looked too decorative and might have served as
a curtain for the theater. Then my eyes turned to the pieces of
colored paper that had fallen to the floor. They made an abstract
pattern that might have been the shadows of the dancer or an
architectural subject, according to the trend of one's
imagination if he were looking for a representative motive. I
played with these, then saw the painting as it should be carried
out. Scrapping the original forms of the cancer, I set to work on
the canvas, laying in large areas of pure color in the form of
the spaces that had been left outside the original drawings of
the dancer. No attempt was made to establish a color harmony; it
was red against blue, purple against yellow, green versus orange,
with an effect of maximum contrast. The color was laid on with
precision, yet lavishly - in fact, the stock of colors was
entirely depleted. When finished, I wrote the legend along the
bottom of the canvas: The Rope Dancer Accompanies Herself
with Her Shadow."