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Man Ray


1890-1976

Bio

Man Ray is born in 1890 in Philadelphia as Emmanuel Radnitzky. He soon develops into a leading and innovative photographer. With his friend Marcel Duchamp, he founds the American branch of the Dada movement. This movement, started in Europe, is radically opposed to traditional art. But because Dada doesn’t catch on in New York, Ray leaves for Paris in 1921. There he falls in love with the French singer Kiki (Alice Prin), who becomes his favourite model.
He quickly makes a name for himself in Paris. He photographs great artists of that time, such as James Joyce, Gertrude Stein and Jean Cocteau. With Jean Arp, Max Ernst, André Masson, Joan Miró and Pablo Picasso, he is represented at the first surrealistic exhibition at Galerie Pierre in Paris in 1925. In 1934, the surrealist artist Meret Oppenheim poses for Ray, resulting in an iconic photo series.
Ray returns to America, just before World War II. He settles in Hollywood, where he continues to see art friends from Paris. In 1951, however, he returns to Paris, along with Juliet Browner, whom he has married in the US. In this period, he only devotes himself to painting.
Man Ray dies in 1976 in Paris.

portret Man Ray bij biografie
Self-portrait (1943)
Werk

Cactus VIII

1971
Etching and aquatint on Vélin d'Arches
76 x 56.5 cm (sheet), 62.5 x 45.5 cm (image)

Thérèse

1971
Etching and aquatint on Vélin d'Arches
50.5 x 65.8 cm (sheet), 39.7 x 49.3 cm (image)