Painter, photographer, and film-maker, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. He studied art in New York City, became a major figure in the development of Modernism, and co-founder of the New York Dadaist movement. He experimented with new techniques in painting and photography, became interested in filming, and in France made Surrealist films such as Anemic Cinema (1924) with Marcel Duchamp. During the 1930s he published and exhibited photographs and rayographs (photographic montages made without a camera).
Man Ray (August 27, 1890–November 18, 1976) was an American artist who spent most of his career in Paris, France. Best known in the art world for his avant-garde photography, Man Ray produced major works in a variety of media and considered himself a painter above all.
While appreciation for Man Ray’s work beyond his fashion and portrait photography was slow in coming during his lifetime, especially in his native United States, his reputation has grown steadily in the decades since. In 1999, ARTnews magazine named him one of the 25 most influential artists of the 20th century, citing his groundbreaking photography as well as "his explorations of film, painting, sculpture, collage, assemblage, and prototypes of what would eventually be called performance art and conceptual art" and saying "Man Ray offered artists in all media an example of a creative intelligence that, in its 'pursuit of pleasure and liberty,'" — Man Ray’s stated guiding principles — "unlocked every door it came to and walked freely where it would."
Biography
Background and Early Life
From the time he began attracting attention as an artist until his death more than 60 years later, Man Ray allowed little of his early life or family background to be known to the public, even refusing to acknowledge that he had ever had any name other than Man Ray.
In reality, Man Ray was born Emmanuel Radnitzky, in the South Side of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1890, the eldest child of recent Russian-Jewish immigrants. In early 1912, the Radnitzky family changed their surname to Ray, a name selected by Man Ray's brother, in reaction to the ethnic discrimination and anti-Semitism prevalent at that time. Emmanuel, who was called "Manny" as a nickname, changed his first name to Man at this time, and gradually began to use Man Ray as his combined single name.
Man Ray’s father was a garment factory worker who also ran a small tailoring business out of the family home, enlisting his children from an early age. Man Ray’s mother was a talented amateur seamstress who made the family’s clothes from her own designs. Despite Man Ray’s desire to disassociate himself from his family background, this experience left an enduring mark on his art.
First Artistic Endeavors
Man Ray showed evidence of being artistically and mechanically inclined from childhood. However much this decision disappointed his parents' aspirations to upward mobility and assimilation, they nevertheless rearranged the family's modest living quarters so that Man Ray could use a room as his studio.
New York
In 1915, Man Ray had his first one-man show of paintings and drawings. In 1913 Man Ray met his first wife, Adon Lacroix.
While living in New York City, with his friend Marcel Duchamp, he formed the American branch of the Dada movement, which began in Europe as a radical rejection of traditional art.
After a few unsuccessful experiments, and notably after the publication of a unique issue of New York Dada in 1920, Man Ray stated, "Dada cannot live in New York".
Paris
In July 1921, he went to live and work in Paris, France, and soon settled in the Montparnasse quarter favored by many artists. Kiki was Man Ray's companion for most of the 1920s.
For the next 20 years in Montparnasse, Man Ray made his mark on the art of photography.
With Jean Arp, Max Ernst, André Masson, Joan Miró, and Pablo Picasso, Man Ray was represented in the first Surrealist exhibition at the Gallerie Pierre in Paris in 1925.
In 1934, Surrealist artist Méret Oppenheim, known for her fur-covered tea cup, posed for Man Ray in what became a well-known series of photographs depicting Oppenheim nude, standing next to a printing press.
Together with Lee Miller — his photography assistant and lover — Man Ray reinvented the photographic technique of solarization.
Man Ray also directed a number of influential avant-garde short films, such as Le Retour à la Raison (2 mins, 1923);
Later Life
Later in life, Man Ray returned to the United States, where he lived in Los Angeles, California from 1940 until 1951. A few days after arriving in Los Angeles, Man Ray met Juliet Browner, a trained dancer and experienced artists' model.
When Juliet Browner Man Ray, died in 1991, she was interred in the same tomb.
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