MAN RAY

Man Ray (1890-1976) was a polymath modernist working in painting, sculpture, film, printmaking, and poetry but it was his work in photography, with nude studies, fashion work and portraiture that saw him pioneering a new chapter in the history of camerawork and art. With a wide-ranging collection of both his famous and lesser-known works, this monograph gives a vivid overview of Man Ray's multifaceted practice and photographic legacy. See the rosebud lips of Kiki de Montparnasse 1929 and also one of her semi naked in 1922, Lee Miller in fashionable clothing 1930, Meret Oppenheimer and Nancy Cunard with dozens of huge bangles. It traces Ray from his artistic beginnings in New York through to his central role in the Parisian avant-garde, where he featured in the first Surrealist exhibition with Jean Arp, Max Ernst, André Masson, Joan Miró, and Pablo Picasso (some of whom are photographed in this collection) and produced such now iconic works as the tied up nude Blanc et Noire and Le Violon d'Ingres with the naked back of a woman decorated with the violin shapes and the tear drops on the mascara eye in close up Les Larmes. Through numerous examples of still life, portraiture, and beyond, we see how Ray constantly experimented with new techniques, pushing photography out of its documentary domain into ethereal, poetic expressions through multiple exposure, solarization, and the particular brand of photograms he wittily termed "rayography." 14 x 19.5cm, 192 pages. New from Taschen.