Known mostly for his radical experiments with camera-less photography, Man Ray also identified as a painter and experimented with sculpture and readymade objects. Man Ray's art reflects the Dada and Surrealist embrace of the bizarre and illogical.
Read MoreMan Ray moved to Paris in 1921, connecting with the Dada and Surrealist movements there. The latter was led by writer André Breton, who penned the First Manifesto of Surrealism in 1924 and encouraged explorations of the mind and aesthetics of the irrational.
The artist's subsequent works reflect Dada and Surrealist tendencies, such as the humorous and illogical combination of an iron and a row of tacks in the readymade Gift (1921) and the spinning discs in the film Anémic Cinéma (1926), the latter a collaboration with Duchamp and Marc Allégret. For L'Étoile de Mer (1928), now regarded as a classic Surrealist film, the artist shot through a sheet of glass, generating a hazy, dream-like quality.
IIn Paris, Man Ray cultivated a reputation as a photographer. One of his most well-known works, Le Violon d'Ingres (1924) shows his then-lover Kiki de Montparnasse nude—save for a turban—with her back to the camera. In a humorous gesture, Man Ray added the two black f-holes of a violin to accentuate the likeness between her body and the instrument. Celebrity sitters for the artist's portraits included Coco Chanel, Peggy Guggenheim, Pablo Picasso, Aldous Huxley, and Virginia Woolf, and he also contributed photographs to fashion magazines such as Harper's Bazaar and French Vogue.
In 1929, Man Ray had an affair with photographer Lee Miller, who became an important collaborator during their four-year relationship. The two experimented with a solarisation technique that involved exposing a film negative to light as it developed, creating a silvery quality. This effect can be seen in the c. 1929 Solarised Portrait of Lee Miller and the 1931 reclining female nude portrait Primat de la matière sur la pensée.
After Miller left him, Man Ray created a number of iconic works featuring body parts that recalled his ex-lover. The photograph, Glass Tears (1932), for example, depicts a close-up of a woman's eyes, with glass tears on her face. For this he used a mannequin that resembled Miller.
When Germany occupied Paris in 1940, Man Ray left for Los Angeles. There, he married dancer and model Juliet Browner. He continued to focus on painting and photography, producing works that included 'Shakespearean Equation' (1948), a series of paintings presenting mathematical models as actors in a Shakespearean play.
Man Ray and Browner returned to Paris in 1951. From then until the time of his death in 1976, the artist continued to work across mediums. He also published an autobiography, entitled Self Portrait, in 1963.
