Man Ray

Man Ray (born Emmanuel Radnitzky, 1890-1976) was an innovative artist associated with the surrealist movement.  As an artist, his work includes paintings, sculpture, film and photography. Initially, he was inspired by cubism and expressionism, but Dadaism and later Surrealism became the focus of his work. Moving from America to Paris in 1921 he became part of a group of Dada and Surrealist artists (Manray.net).

Bracegirdle (2012) , describes Man Ray’s approach as a photographer as technically adventurous using a range of effects including solaristion (reversing the shadows and highlights though overexposing during printing), camera less prints or photograms (he called these Rayographs), and grain enlargement. The aim was expand the range of approaches to his creative work. 

Man Ray’s, famous works representing a range of art forms. The following images I find particularly interesting for the way they were created and their ambiguity, which draws the viewer in.

The Kiss, 1922

This is an example of a photogram, where the image is created using photographic paper without a camera. To create this image, the paper was exposed multiple times, each time using a different object to create the silhouettes. In this example, it could have been three exposures with a pair of hands, the heads (himself and his lover Kiki de Montparnasse) and two photographic trays. Man Ray called these photograms, Rayographs. Though the technique existed before, he was the first to use it for fine art, not just as a reproduction of a subject (Manray.net, 2019).  His rayographs have been described as visionary and likened to avant-garde painters of the period (The Met, 2019).

Ingre’s Violin, 1924

This image was inspired by the nudes of  French Neoclassical artist, Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres (1780-1867). This is possibly the most well known image of French model and artist, Kiki de Montparnasse (1901-1953). The f holes of the violin were painted onto the image, suggesting her body as a musical instrument. The title is also a play on words as the phrase violin d’Ingres is a colloquialism meaning hobby, perhaps implying something about how Man Ray viewed the subject. The phrase was derived from Ingres’ well known love of the violin (Manray.net, 2019)

Glass Tears, 1932

All is not what it seems in this image. The model is looking away from the camera and appears to be upset. The model is actually a mannequin and the tears are fake, made of glass. Education at the Getty (2019) describes the image as a metaphor for artificiality in art. The tear drops are exaggerated and could be viewed as fake tears. Taken after Man Ray had been left by his lover Lee Miller in 1932, it could be viewed as a commentary on insincerity. 

References

BLUMBERG, N. 2019. Kiki de Montparnasse | French cabaret performer, painter, and artists’ muse [Online]. @britannica. Available: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Kiki-de-Montparnasse [Accessed 8 Dec 2019].

BRACEGIRDLE, A. 2012. Avante-Garde Photography in Paris. In: HACKING, J. (ed.) Photography The Whole Story. London: Thames & Hudson.

DELECARE, E. 2016. Art History 101: The 10 Most Famous Works by Man Ray [Online]. Available: https://canvas.saatchiart.com/art/art-history-101/the-10-most-famous-works-by-man-ray [Accessed 7 Dec 2019].

Education at the Getty. 2019. Exploring Photographs [Online]. Available: https://www.getty.edu/education/teachers/classroom_resources/curricula/exploring_photographs/ [Accessed 8 Dec 2019].

MANRAY.NET. 2019. MAN RAY Paintings Photography and quotes. [Online]. Available: https://www.manray.net/ [Accessed 8 Dec 2019]..

The MET. 2019. Man Ray, Rayograph [Online]. Available: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/265487 [Accessed 7 Dec 2019].

Last updated 8 Dec 2019