This claims to be the first exhibition of his portraits in the UK, with over 150 specimens. But to be honest, it felt small and pinched. A lot of his most famous images weren’t on display and a lot of what was on display was journeyman stuff from the 1940s and 50s. There weren’t nearly enough of the solarised photos and, because the exhibition focuses on portraits, no abstract or experimental or still life photos. Instead, he came over as a superior and sometimes quirky magazine photographer.
The show was in three long, thin rooms divided into small, cramped booths each addressing periods in his career:
New York 1916 to 1920
Born Michael Emmanuel Radnitzky in Philadelphia in 1890, Man Ray taught himself photography to record and reproduce his own works of art. The first work in the show dates from 1916. He was an American, just starting his career during the Great War, but immediately he is photographing Marcel Duchamp, darling of Dada and the avant-garde, a milieu MR was to inhabit for the rest of his life.
Man Ray’s support and promotion of avant-garde artists was formalised in 1920, when American patron Katherine Dreier invited Man Ray and Duchamp to establish the Société Anonyme, America’s first contemporary art collection.
Paris 1921 to 1928
In 1921 MR followed Duchamp to Paris where he held his first solo exhibition of paintings. A succès d’estime, his paintings didn’t make any money, persuading MR to focus his efforts on photography.
He set up studios in 1922, the annus mirabilis of literary Modernism. The exhibition is a who’s who of artistic Paris in the golden age of Modernism – Hemingway, Stravinksy, Picasso, Matisse, Schoenberg, Joyce. You spend more time reading the rather exhausting wall captions about these super-famous stars than looking at the actual images…
During these years his lover and muse was Kiki (born Alice Prin) who features in the iconic images, Violon d’Ingres and Noire et Blanche.
Le Violon d’Ingres, 1924 by Man Ray. Museum Ludwig Cologne, Photography Collections (Collection Gruber) © Man Ray Trust / ADAGP © Copy Photograph Rheinisches Bildarchiv Köln
Paris 1929 to 1937
Central to this period is American-born photographer and fashion model Lee Miller, whose striking good looks and crisp figure feature in many of MR’s photos from the time. Together they developed the process of solarisation. There are not nearly enough solarised images in the exhibition. Where is the most famous one of all, Les Larmes?
New to me were the striking images of lesbian stunner Suzy Solidor. And I’ve always had a soft spot for the wonderful photo of Nusch et Sonia Mosse. Man Ray came to London to organise an exhibition and took portraits of leading English artists, including iconic images of Aldous Huxley and Virginia Woolf. Superior book jacket shots.
Solarised Portrait of Lee Miller, c.1929 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
Hollywood 1940 to 1950
After the German invasion of France in 1940, Man Ray returned to the United States, travelling to Hollywood where he met Juliet Browner, a 28-year-old dancer and artist’s model. She became his muse and companion for the next thirty-six years. His photographic output drops off as, for the next ten years, MR concentrates on his painting, only taking occasional portraits of friends in the film and arts community.
Paris 1951 to 1976
Like other European artistic exiles who had gone to America during the war years, Man Ray returned to Paris afterwards, in 1951. He was primarily concerned with making editions of his artwork, writing an autobiography, ‘Man Ray Self-Portrait’ (1963), and contributing to retrospective exhibitions, experimenting a bit with new colour photographic processes, making colour portraits including those of Juliette Greco and Yves Montand.
In August 1976 Man Ray celebrated his eighty-sixth and last birthday, just as the Sex Pistols were starting their explosive career in London. From one pioneer of Dada to….
Related links
- Man Ray Portraits continues at the National Portrait Gallery until 27 May 2013
Books & Boots 