Dadaism

Man Ray (born Emmanuel Radnitzky; August 27, 1890 – November 18, 1976) .
A tireless experimenter with photographic techniques who participated in the Cubist, Dadaist, and Surrealist art movements, Man Ray created a new photographic art which emphasized chance effects and surprising juxtapositions. Unconcerned with "Craft," he employed solarization, grain enlargement, and cameraless prints (photograms) which he called "Rayographs" - made by placing objects directly on photographic paper and exposing them to the light. Man Ray was, with Moholy-Nagy, the most significant maker of cameraless photographs in the 1920s and 1930s.

As a painter, sculptor, and filmmaker, as well as a photographer, Man Ray brought his diverse techniques to bear upon one another in the attempt to create "disturbing objects. His life and art spoke of freedom, pleasure, and the desire for extended awareness and means of expression. His work has been a significant influence on Bill Brandt and Berenice Abbott (both of whom studied with and assisted him), and more recent photographers using multi-media techniques.

Biography :

1890 Emmanuel Radnitsky is born on August 27 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1897 His family moves to Brooklyn, New York.
1903 Bar Mitzvah
1904 Enters high school and has lessons in freehand drawing and industrial draughtsmanship. "I came out with a complete technical training in the fundamentals of architecture, engineering and lettering."
1908 Is offered grant to study architecture, which he turns down. "I'm not interested in the exterior aspect. I'm interested in a building's inside. Give me space, light and warmth, I'll take care of the rest." 1910-1911
1910-1911 Begins going to Ferrer Center (so named after the Spanish anarchist). The Center functioned under libertarian principles, with classes in drawing, watercolor. "In fact, everything was open and free, even love." Begins to visit the "291" gallery of Alfred Stieglitz
1911 Moves to New-York.
1912 Spring : Moves to Ridgefield, New Jersey. Works as advertising draughtsman.
1913 Visits Armory Show and discovers European avant-garde with the works of Marcel Duchamp and Francis Picabia. Makes first cubist painting: Portrait of Alfred Stieglitz. Meets Donna Lecoeur (Adon Lacroix), a poet of French extraction who reads him Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Lautréamont, Mallarmé, Apollinaire. Works part-time as draughtsman for publisher of maps and atlases until 1919. With the poet Alfred Kreymborg, attempts to create an artist's community in Ridgefield.
1913-1914 Winter. Meets an amateur poet, Hartpence, who introduces him to Daniel, a well to do merchant who later opens an art gallery.
1914 May : Marries Adon Lacroix with whom he had been living in Ridgefield. Had apparently abandoned his family name and was now known as Man Ray, as it appears in the Marriage Register. August. War breaks out in Europe, has to postpone his plans to visit France with Adon Lacroix. Does lettering for Adon's texts, embellishing them with drawings and lithographies. A Book of Diverse Writings is published the following year.
1915 Buys a camera to photograph his paintings.
September or October : First meeting with Marcel Duchamp in Ridgefield, New Jersey.
October to November : First one-man show at the Daniel Gallery: thirty paintings and some sketches. After the closing, Arthur J. Eddy buys six paintings for $2000. Before winter. Moves back to New York on Lexington Avenue.
1915-1916 Attends soirées at the Arensbergs (Walter and Louis), where he meets Charles Demuth, Georges Bellows, Joseph Stella, William Carlos Williams and the expatriate Frenchmen, Marcel Duchamp, Francis Picabia, Edgar Varèse, Jean Crotti. With Marcel Duchamp, he also participates in the New York Dada movement.
1916 Before winter : Moves to 26th Street near Broadway. Paints The Rope Dancer Accompanies Herself with Her Shadows.
1916-1917 Revolving Doors : "Collages mounted upon a stand and hinged so that they could be turned and seen one at a time".
December 1916 - January 16, 1917 :. Second one-man show at the Daniel Gallery.
1917-1920 John Quinn (and Roché ?) hires him to photograph works of art he owns or plans to buy.
1917 Paints Suicide, one of his first aerographs. "Surprising results; it could have been photography, though the subjects were not at all photographic".
Makes first cliché-verre.
1918 Ferdinand Howall begins collecting Man Ray's work. Remakes the Rope Dancer in aerography.
1919 March : publishes the only issue of "TNT", an anarchist magazine
Breaks off with Donna.
La volière, aerograph.
November 17 - December 1 : Third one-man show at the Daniel Gallery.
1920 Corresponds with Tristan Tzara . Designs first chess set. Collaborates with Duchamp in photography. With Marcel Duchamp, tries to make an anaglyphic movie - in relief - with two cameras.
April 29th : With Marcel Duchamp and Katherine Dreier, signs the constitution of "Société Anonyme Inc". (Museum of Modern Art).
February 1-29th : Participates in "Exhibition of Painting by American Modernists", Museum of History, Science and Art, Los Angeles.
1921 March 7-26th : Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Wins $10 for Portrait of a Sculptor Berenice Abbott in John Wanamaker's competition "15th Annual Exhibition of Photographs". Makes a movie with Marcel Duchamp, Elsa, Baroness von Freytag-Loringhoven shaves her pubic hair.
June 21st : Marcel Duchamp leaves New York for Paris.
July : Gets money from family and $500 from Ferdinand Howald to go to Paris.
July 14th : Arrives in Paris. Marcel Duchamp intoduces him to Dadaists.
August : Lives in a top floor room, 22 rue de la Condamine, belonging to Yvonne Chastel. Meets Paul Poiret.
September : Sign "L'œil cacodylate" : Man Ray, director of "mauvais movies" .
October : Meets Jean Cocteau who introduces him to his many acquaintances.
Starting November : Many portraits of people.
Around November : Makes first rayograph. At the opening of his exhibition at the Galerie des Six, meets Erik Satie. With him, creates "the Gift" , an iron bristling with nails. Optical research with Marcel Duchamp which will result in Anemic Cinema. Meets Kiki de Montparnasse .
November or December : Moves to Hotel des Ecoles on the rue Delambre in Montparnasse.
1921-1922 First rayography
1922 Many portraits including those of Gertrude Stein, Georges Braque , James Joyce, Jean Cocteau... Works for Parisien publishers of English works. Makes cover photographs for the magazines Mecano, The Little Review, Ma, Les Feuilles Libres, Aventura. Becomes fashion photographer for Paul Poiret.
January : Tristan Tzara moves to the Hôtel des Ecoles.
January 10th :Opening of the café "Bœuf sur le toit". Photographs of "the Cocteau gang" are hung there.
February : Probably goes to San Rafael with Francis Picabia.
February 17th : Signs Tristan Tzara's resolution against André Breton's Congrès de Paris.
July : Rents a studio at 31bis rue Campagne-Première.
Mid-October to end November : Sick in bed.
November 18th : At the request of Jean Cocteau, takes a picture of Marcel Proust on his deathbed. Makes first movie The Return to Reason.
1923 "In 1923 I was an established photographer" Takes on Berenice Abbot as assistant until 1926.
July 6th : Return to Reason is presented at the "Cœur à Barbe" soirée at the Theater Michel. Dudley Murphy asks Man Ray to make a movie. The project falls through and Murphy convinces Fernand Léger to make "Ballet mécanique" with Man Ray doing some of the photography.
November : The Jockey opens at Montparnasse with Kiki pe ...

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