IN PARIS - Man Ray
After the First World War, Paris was teeming with Americans. Bon vivants seeking to escape Prohibition mingled with artists and intellectuals, all pursuing their dreams in the City of Light. American modernist Man Ray (1890-1976) spent the 1920s and 1930s in Paris, where experimental expression flourished. Although he considered himself first and foremost a painter, and also worked in film, sculpture and collage, his best-known and most innovative medium was photography.
Man Ray arrived in Paris in 1921, full of creative energy. Inspired by Marcel Duchamp's "readymades" - banal objects that become works of art in the context of a gallery - Man Ray spontaneously created an assemblage at a party by combining thumbtacks and an iron, which he then photographed. Shortly afterwards, he began experimenting with camera-less photography and conceived his Rayographies, abstract images produced by placing objects directly on photographic paper and exposing it to light.
Eventually, he became an influential figure in the city's avant-garde circles, and began to produce striking portraits of numerous personalities, including Pablo Picasso, James Joyce, Jean Cocteau, Joan Miró and Gertrude Stein. His work inspired other photographers and encouraged painters, including surrealists René Magritte and Salvador Dalí, to experiment with the medium.
Published by J. Paul Getty Museum, 2011
128 pages
ISBN: 978-1606060605
After the First World War, Paris was teeming with Americans. Bon vivants seeking to escape Prohibition mingled with artists and intellectuals, all pursuing their dreams in the City of Light. American modernist Man Ray (1890-1976) spent the 1920s and 1930s in Paris, where experimental expression flourished. Although he considered himself first and foremost a painter, and also worked in film, sculpture and collage, his best-known and most innovative medium was photography.
Man Ray arrived in Paris in 1921, full of creative energy. Inspired by Marcel Duchamp's "readymades" - banal objects that become works of art in the context of a gallery - Man Ray spontaneously created an assemblage at a party by combining thumbtacks and an iron, which he then photographed. Shortly afterwards, he began experimenting with camera-less photography and conceived his Rayographies, abstract images produced by placing objects directly on photographic paper and exposing it to light.
Eventually, he became an influential figure in the city's avant-garde circles, and began to produce striking portraits of numerous personalities, including Pablo Picasso, James Joyce, Jean Cocteau, Joan Miró and Gertrude Stein. His work inspired other photographers and encouraged painters, including surrealists René Magritte and Salvador Dalí, to experiment with the medium.
Published by J. Paul Getty Museum, 2011
128 pages
ISBN: 978-1606060605
After the First World War, Paris was teeming with Americans. Bon vivants seeking to escape Prohibition mingled with artists and intellectuals, all pursuing their dreams in the City of Light. American modernist Man Ray (1890-1976) spent the 1920s and 1930s in Paris, where experimental expression flourished. Although he considered himself first and foremost a painter, and also worked in film, sculpture and collage, his best-known and most innovative medium was photography.
Man Ray arrived in Paris in 1921, full of creative energy. Inspired by Marcel Duchamp's "readymades" - banal objects that become works of art in the context of a gallery - Man Ray spontaneously created an assemblage at a party by combining thumbtacks and an iron, which he then photographed. Shortly afterwards, he began experimenting with camera-less photography and conceived his Rayographies, abstract images produced by placing objects directly on photographic paper and exposing it to light.
Eventually, he became an influential figure in the city's avant-garde circles, and began to produce striking portraits of numerous personalities, including Pablo Picasso, James Joyce, Jean Cocteau, Joan Miró and Gertrude Stein. His work inspired other photographers and encouraged painters, including surrealists René Magritte and Salvador Dalí, to experiment with the medium.
Published by J. Paul Getty Museum, 2011
128 pages
ISBN: 978-1606060605