MAN RAY (1890-1976)

A Dada movement painter, sculptor, film maker, and photographer, Man Ray became one of America's most influential artists and was based in New York City.

He was born with the name of Emmanuel Radensky in Philadelphia and was raised in New York City. He worked for an engraving firm and studied art briefly at the Ferrer School, but from that time was largely self taught. In 1911, he began doing collage, which was some of the first non-objective art work in this country. He also explored Cubism, being influenced by Max Weber who had been to Paris and by exposure to talk at Alfred Stieglitz' Gallery 291. Stieglitz introduced him to photography, and he began a widely sought after fashion photographer, earning his living in this way.

In 1915, he came under the influence of Marcel Duchamp and turned to Dadaist methods including a collage self-portrait with electric bells and a push button. He derived his forms from his own ideas, not from nature. In 1919, he began using the airbrush, and then created hanging sculpture out of lamp shades.

He was a founder of the Societe Anonyme in 1920, which was the first American organization to promote modern art. The next year, he went to Paris and stayed for 20 years, and then lived in California until 1951. After that he returned to Paris, which he considered to be his true home. There he participated in Surrealist and Dada exhibitions and was involved in the making of four Surrealist films.

In May, 1999, ARTNews featured him as one of the top twenty-five most influential artists in the western world because of "his exploration of film, painting, sculpture, collage, assemblage, and prototypes of what would eventually be called performance art and conceptual art..."

Source:
Matthew Baigell, "Dictionary of American Art"
ARTNews, May, 1999