Devoted to one of the most innovative and influential artists of his generation, a new major photographic retrospective will include over 150 vintage photographs from Man Ray’s career, taken between 1916 and 1968.
Man Ray Portraits, at London's National Portrait Gallery, is the first museum exhibition to focus on the photographic portraiture of the American modern artist.
The works will include studies of Pablo Picasso, Barbette, Catherine Deneuve, Ava Gardner, Lee Miller and Kiki de Montparnasse.
LEFT: Barbette, 1926 by Man Ray. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 84.XM.1000.39 © Man Ray Trust ARS-ADAGP
RIGHT: Helen Tamiris, 1929 by Man Ray. Collection du Centre Pompidou, Mnam/Cci, Paris, AM 1994-394 (3200) © Man Ray Trust / ADAGP, Paris © Centre Pompidou,MNAM-CCI,Di st. RMN/Guy Carrard
Drawn from private collections and major museums including the Pompidou Centre, the J. Paul Getty Museum and New York’s The Museum of Modern Art and Metropolitan Museum of Art, and special loans from the Man Ray Trust Archive.
Portraits of Man Ray’s celebrated contemporaries will be shown in the exhibition, alongside his personal and often intimate portraits of friends, lovers and his social circle.
His versatility and experimentation as an artist is illustrated throughout his photography although this was never his chosen principal artistic medium. The exhibition brings together photographic portraits of cultural figures and friends including Marcel Duchamp, Berenice Abbott, Andre Breton, Jean Cocteau, Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, James Joyce, Erik Satie, Henri Matisse, Barbette, Igor Stravinsky, Yves Tanguy, Salvador Dali, Le Corbusier, Virginia Woolf, Aldous Huxley, Coco Chanel and Wallis Simpson.
Catherine Deneuve, 1968 by Man Ray. Private Lender © Man Ray Trust ARS-ADAGP / DACS
LEFT: Ithell Colquhoun, 1932 by Man Ray Collection du Centre Pompidou, Mnam/Cci, Paris, AM 1994-394 (3461) © Man Ray Trust / ADAGP, Paris © Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI, Dist. RMN/ Guy Carrard
RIGHT: Juliet,1947 by Man Ray Collection Timothy Baum, New York © Man Ray Trust/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP/DACS Catherine Deneuve, 1968 by Man Ray Private Lender © Man (right)
He initially taught himself photography in order to reproduce his works of art, but in 1920 he began to work as a portrait photographer to fund his artwork
Philadelphia-born Man Ray, who was born in 1890 and died in 1976, spent his early life in New York, turning down a scholarship to study architecture in order to devote himself to painting.
He initially taught himself photography in order to reproduce his works of art, but in 1920 he began to work as a portrait photographer to fund his artwork. In 1915, whilst at Ridgefield artist colony in New Jersey, he met the French artist Marcel Duchamp and together they tried to establish New York Dada. His friendship with Duchamp led to Man Ray’s move to Paris in 1921, where, as a contributor to the Dada and Surrealist movements, he was perfectly placed to make defining images of his contemporaries from the avant-garde.
LEFT: Henry Crowder, 1928 by Man Ray Collection du Centre Pompidou, Mnam/Cci, Paris, AM 1994-394 (463) © Man Ray Trust / ADAGP, Paris © Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI, Dist. RMN / image Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI
RIGHT: Le Violon d'Ingres, 1924 by Man Ray. Museum Ludwig Cologne, Photography Collections (Collection Gruber) © Man Ray Trust / ADAGP © Copy Photograph Rheinisches Bildarchiv Köln
In this period he was instrumental in developing and producing a type of photogram which he called ‘Rayographs’, and is credited in inventing, alongside his lover and collaborator Lee Miller, the process of solarisation.
Although officially devoting himself once more to painting, new research has revealed that Man Ray made a number of significant photographic portraits during his Hollywood years, and several are shown for the first time in this exhibition
The use of solarisation can be seen in the portraits of Elsa Schiaparelli, Irene Zurkinden, Lee Miller, Suzy Solidor and his own Self-Portrait with Camera included in the exhibition.
Following the outbreak of World War II, Man Ray left France for the US and took up residence in Hollywood.
Although officially devoting himself once more to painting, new research has revealed that Man Ray made a number of significant photographic portraits during his Hollywood years, and several are shown for the first time in this exhibition.
Film star subjects included Ruth Ford, Paulette Goddard, Ava Gardner, Tilly Losch and Dolores del Rio.
Returning to Paris in 1951 he again made the city his home until his death in 1976. His portraits from the 1950s include experiments with colour photography, such as his portraits of Juliette Greco and Yves Montand, and the exhibition closes with his portrait of film star Catherine Deneuve from 1968.
LEFT: Lee Miller, 1930 by Man Ray. The Penrose Collection © Man Ray Trust/ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2012, courtesy The Penrose Collection. Image courtesy the Lee Miller Archives
RIGHT: Man Ray (1890-1976): Untitled (Self-Portrait with Camera), 1930 (printed 1935/36).. New York, The Jewish Museum*** Permission for usage must be provided in writing from Scala. May have restrictions - please contact Scala for details.
Man Ray Portraits is curated by the National Portrait Gallery’s Curator of Photographs, Terence Pepper, whose previous exhibitions at the Gallery include the award-winning Vanity Fair Portraits (2008), Beatles to Bowie: the 60s exposed (2009), Angus McBean: Portraits (2006), Cecil Beaton: Portraits (2004) and Horst: Portraits (2001).
Man Ray Portraits will tour to the Scottish National Portrait Gallery from 22 June until 8 September 2013 and the State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow from 14 October 2013 until 19 January 2014.
A fully-illustrated 224 page hardback catalogue, Man Ray Portraits, accompanies the exhibition. The catalogue includes an introductory essay by Marina Warner, Professor in the Department of Literature, Film and Theatre Studies at the University of Essex, and a writer of fiction, criticism and history, and an extensive illustrated chronology by Helen Trompeteler, Assistant Curator of Photographs at the National Portrait Gallery. Price £35 (hardback).
The exhibition runs from 7 February until 27 May 2013 at the National Portrait Gallery in London.Tickets cost from £11 from the National Portrait Gallery website.
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