Man Ray - vendere e comprare opere
27 August 1890, Philadelphia (USA) - 18 November 1976, Paris (France)
Man Ray was a noteworthy painter, sculptor, photographer and filmmaker. Besides numerous surreal works, his portrait photographs of contemporary artists are particularly well known.
Ray was born in Philadelphia on 27 August 1890 as Michael Rudnitzky. He acquired the nickname Ray when the members of his Jewish family americanised their surnames. He began producing sketches as a young boy and later on attended school courses for technical drawing. His style is categorised as Dadaism, a movement that rejects conventional art forms.
Ray contributed paintings and experimental art objects to the first exhibitions in which he participated. He sourced his inspiration for these items in the work produced by Marcel Duchamp on machinery, which Ray modified and rebuilt as illogical and mutant absurdities of functional devices. Ray became fascinated with light-sensitive materials without the use of a photographic camera from 1920 onward. The photograms he created in this way were mass-produced and given the name rayographs. In the Golden Age of his creative oeuvre, Ray recognised that photographic art presented his best means of expression.
In 1920, Ray felt that the artistic community in New York had become bogged down, and so he started to associate with the progressive art scene in Europe. He followed Duchamp to Paris, where he made the acquaintance of numerous Dadaists, eased by his good knowledge of the French language. His first exhibition was held 1921 in the Librairie Six in Paris. The Parisian years were characterised by creativeness and a focus on photography, portraits, painting and experimental films, culminating in his participation in the 1938 Exposition Internationale du Surrealisme. The artist decided to return to America due to the burgeoning National Socialist sentiments in Europe. Largely unknown overseas, the artist experienced a quieter period. He returned to France in May 1951, after the shockwaves of the Second World War had settled. Portrait photography remained his principal artistic pursuit until the end of his life.