English Group Work
Man Ray 1890 - 1976
By: Matan Kol, Amir Ben – david, Elad Aviv.
To: Carla Harpaz
Date: 16/12/04
Time Line
- 1890 - Emmanuel Radnitsky is born on August 27 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
- 1903 - Emmanuel Radnitsky is 13 years old. He has a Bar Mitzvah.
- 1910 - 1911 - Emmanuel's family changes their surname to Ray, soon afterworlds
Emmanuel changes his name to Man. At the same years Man Ray began going to
Ferrer Center. The Center functioned under libertarian principles, with classes in
drawing, watercolor. He also Begins to visit the "291" gallery of Alfred Stieglitz.
- 1913 - Man moves to Ridgefield, New Jersey. It is there where he met his first wife,
Adon Lacroix (which he married her on may of 1914). It is there where he also met
Marcel Duchamp the fondest of the Dada movement.
-1921 - Man Ray won his first photo award.
-3291 - Man Ray hired his first assistant Berenice Abbot until 1926.
-3292 - He hired hes second assistant Lee Miller until 1932.
-1936 - (end of the year) Goes to New York for three months. Makes photographs for
a fashion magazine and Collaborates with his photographs of mathematical objects at
the exhibition "Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism".
-1946 - Man Ray gives a lecture on Surrealism. "The only preparation I made for this
was to construct an object that would demonstrate a Surrealist act." At the end of the
lecture he organizes a lottery and gives the object to the winner.
-3291 - November 18th : Man Ray dies in Paris.
Tears
In the following picture we see a woman who has tears in her eyes. We can also see
that the woman in the picture is looking up.
From the dark colors that Man Ray used and from the tears in the woman's eyes it
looks like the woman is in distress. This at turn makes us think and feel that when
Man Ray painted that picture he himself was in distress, and he used the picture as a
way to compete with his problems. We also think that it seems like Man Ray wanted
that the viewers will focus on the woman's eyes, when their part is to show us Man
Ray's feelings at the time that he draw this picture.
Man Ray's attention to details shows us that he is a very talented painter; it almost
looks like the painting is a picture captured by a camera.
This painting is connected to subject of dreams by Man Rays painting the woman's
tears in a shape that looks like pearls and by that he mixes fantasy with realty.
Man Rays purpose of mixing fantasy with really may be to show that a woman's tears
a precious as pearls.
le violin d'ingres
Man Rays "le violin d'ingres" is one of he's most famous paintings.
In this painting we see a naked woman, setting, slightly looking backwards, with
violin or cello marks on her back.
It is throw this painting that we can understand and imagine Man Ray's attitude
towards the female body, we understand from the cello or violin marks on her back,
what Man Ray think of the female body - a delicate instrument that should be
threaded with care, he tries to make it look like all of the woman's body figure are a
part of this cello or violin.
And it is from that, that we conclude that Man Ray believes that a woman's body and
soul is the most beautiful thing in the world.
This is connected to the theme of dreams because only in the fantasy world a woman's
body is a violin or cello.
Man Ray takes one aspect of really and he gives it an entire new perspective by using
the fantasy world, which is shown in this painting, by him in the form of a woman's
body that looks like a cello or violin.
Questionnaire
1. What was Man Ray's name before he changed it?
A. Daniel Rodriguez
B. Emmanuel Radnitsky
C. Debby Moakley
D. No answer is correct
2. In what year man ray met his first wife and what was her
name?
A. 1931- Laura Moakley
B. 1807- Michaela Kauffman
C. 1913- Adon Lacroix
D. 1929- Marry Delton
3. To what movement was Man Ray a part of? And what was his
job in it?
A. Surrealist movement- photographer
B. Freehand drawing- manager
C. He wasn't part of any movement
D. Painting movement- clerk
4. Give 3 names of Man Ray paint's!
A. return to season, tears, levymedopt
B. monaliza, shagero, painto
C. portoniko, pladment, shiho
D. dikalo, book large, Juliet
5. When did Man Ray died?
A. July 15- 1956
B. September 27- 1971
C. November 12- 1936
D. November 18- 1976
Man Ray Biographical Information
Emmanuel Radnitsky was born in Philadelphia in 1890. The son of poor Russian
immigrants, he spent part of his childhood in Philadelphia and then moved with his
family to Brooklyn at the age of seven. After Emmanuel's graduation from high
school in 1911, his parents changed the family's surname from Radnitsky to Ray.
Emmanuel followed suit shortly thereafter, changing his first name to Man.
Man Ray showed artistic tendencies from an early age. After graduating high school
he received a scholarship to attend architecture school, but declined the offer in order
to pursue a painting career. He found work as an engraver and draughtsman, taking
classes at the Art Students League in Manhattan in his spare time. However, he found
the classes to be too rigid, and in 1912 enrolled in a life drawing class at the Ferrer
School. It was through his studies at the Ferrer School that Man Ray came into
contact with many of the key players in the New York art scene, including the
photographer Alfred Stieglitz.
Stieglitz exhibited and promoted modern art at his gallery, 291. He spoke of the
merits of such European artists as C?zanne, Brancusi, Picasso and van Gogh. This
was Man Ray's first substantial exposure to modern art. His paintings quickly began
to show Post-Impressionist and Cubist techniques.
In 1913 Man Ray moved to an artist colony in Ridgefield, NJ. It was here that he met
his first wife, Adon Lacroix, a Belgian poet. It was also during this time that he
became personally acquainted with Marcel Duchamp. Duchamp had recently created
a stir at the 1912 Armory Show in New York with his painting Nude Descending A
Staircase. Inspired by Duchamp's unique art and technique, Man Ray eventually
moved to Paris in 1921 to join Duchamp in the Dada art scene. He fit in quite well
because he had already been exposed to many of the new modern artists, and was
embraced by his Dada contemporaries.
In 1925, the Dada movement was on the decline while Surrealism was on the rise.
Man Ray began to immerse himself in the ideals of Surrealism just as he had done
with prior art movements. Man Ray's photography would come to play an important
role in the Surrealist movement. Although he had first bought a camera in 1915 to
document his paintings, he now wanted to become a professional portrait
photographer. Some of his very first sitters were his Parisian Surrealist and Dadaist
friends, such as Cocteau and Duchamp. This work soon led to commissions and those
who wanted a cutting-edge photographic portrait sought out Man Ray's talents and
originality. Man Ray was becoming the official photographer of the Surrealist
movement; he would be there for openings, parties and exhibitions to record the
events.
Man Ray also began to receive assignments for several prominent magazines,
including Vogue. His cutting-edge techniques of solarization and Rayography became
well known and highly desirable in the fashion photography world.
The Nazi invasion of France forced Man Ray to return to the United States in 1940.
He moved to Hollywood, California where he met his second wife, Juliet Browner, a
model and dancer. During this time, he once again began to focus on painting. In 1951
Man Ray and Juliet returned to Paris where Man Ray continued to work creating
paintings, photographs and objects until his death in 1976.
MAN RAY AND DADAISM
"DADA speaks with you, it is everything, it envelopes everything, it belongs to every
religion, can be neither victory or defeat, it lives in space and not in time."
Francis Picabia, 1920
The anti-art movement Dadaism, surfacing in Switzerland and New York in 1915,
sought to protest the ills of war through indifference and absurdity. The fundamental
beginnings of the Dadaist Group stemmed from reactions to WWI and bourgeois art
ideals. In reaction, artists held protests, produced publications, and created art that
was considered socially unacceptable.
Marcel Duchamp, who had previously caused a stir in the Armory Show of 1912 with
the presentation of his painting Nude Descending a Staircase, now abandoned the
medium of painting to take on the readymade materials of the Dadaist movement.
Duchamp made use of found objects in his artwork by utilizing everyday items, such
as a urinal, and changing their context. The objects were then displayed as works of
art.
Man Ray, through his friendship with Duchamp, joined in the Dadaist march. He
began to create his own art of found objects assembling common three-dimensional
materials and photographing the images. These two-dimensional photographic
artworks took Dadaism to a new level while providing Man Ray with yet another way
to represent and manipulate the female form.
MAN RAY AND SURREALISM
By 1925 Dadaism was on the decline as Surrealism was coming to the forefront of the
art world. In the Manifeste du Surr?alisme of 1924, the French poet Andr? Breton
defined Surrealism as the joining of the subconscious with the conscious realms of
reality. In an effort to explore how this philosophy applied to human nature and
sexuality, many Surrealists began to incorporate the writings of the 18th century
aristocrat, the Marquis de Sade into their work.
Man Ray embraced the ideals of the Surrealists and admired the Marquis de Sade for
his independence and willingness to explore the taboo despite the consequences. (The
Marquis was considered a literary revolutionary of his time, imprisoned for publishing
his obsessive sexual exploits involving women.) These writings gave Man Ray even
more inspiration in his quest to explore eroticism and female imagery.
Man Ray sought to create a Surrealist vision of the female form and began to utilize
such photographic techniques as solarization, dynamic cropping, over enlargement
and over development in an effort to create a dreamlike effect in his artwork. His use
of the Rayograph helped him to create a new, profound look to his photography,
stressing the importance of light and shadow rather than the object itself. These
camera-less images created by placing objects on light sensitive photographic paper
and then exposing the paper to light assisted Man Ray in the creation of his visual
poetry.
Lips
In Man Ray's "Lips" there are muteness and gait lips in a cloddy sky.
The lips are a woman's lips and they have reed lipstick, will the rest of this painting
are in dark colors.
I like this specific painting because I think that Man Ray worships the female gender
and this painting is an evidence of that, and that is since Man Ray chose to paint the
lips of a woman in the sky like a supreme benign, will a woman's lips are one of the
most sensual part of the body. He also colored it in a vivid red color which makes it
different from the rest of the painting where he used darker colors.
This painting coat my eyes, mainly because some of it is in color, not like most of his
paintings.