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The Man Ray Workshop

Until June 1, 2008

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Art gallery of Paris, 28, place de la Madeleine 75008,01 42 68 02 01,7€

The Art gallery of Paris presents a forgotten facet of the work of Man Ray (1890-1975) in comparison with the French public. And due, when the artist dies part of his files flies away for New York, where Man Ray Trust is founded. For the first time, this rich person collection leaves his cold room…

Multi-field artist, Man Ray (born Emmanuel Radnitzky) is especially known for his photographs, his portraits of artists (Meret Oppenheim, Jean Cocteau, Salvator Dali, Pablo Picasso, Gertrude Stein, etc). He is it also for his more experimental works (Black and White, gilded Lèvres, the Hobby, Tears…).

But this American of birth (Philadelphia), recognized as artist in France only - his compatriots do not take it with the serious one -, represents before a whole pionner modern art. I.e. that he works all the media, without affixing borders between them. Drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, film, assemblies, etc. It touches with all, mixture the supports, and tries out novel methods unceasingly, trying to widen the possibilities of them.
It is in any case the strong image which Marc Restellini, director of the Art gallery, intend to revive by this present exposure. “It should not be forgotten that Man Ray is with Marchel Duchamp the initiator of Dadaism in the United States”.

Indeed, the artist collaborates with Francis Picabia for the review hobby-horse 391 (1920). But one year later, he concludes that “Hobby-horse cannot live in New York. Any New York is Dada and will not support a rival - Dada will not notice”. Then it embarks for France and tries the adventure of Surrealism. With success that one knows to him.

The exposure does not present the most famous works of the artist, held by the Centre Pompidou, and which was already shown many times. But she proposes those of the Man Ray Trust, who holds some 500 objects. The space of the Art gallery being reduced, 250 are revealed here by it (350 in Madrid where the first presentation of the exposure took place, cf catalogues).

Little known early works, document concerning with its private life, drafts of its major works and their stereotypes. Personal objects of which the famous bowler hat of the artist, his rings and a selection of jewels which it created for his second wife Juliet Browner. Formulate for a chemical photographic process that Man Ray tried in vain to sell at the photographic laboratories, first drafts of its autobiography, asks patent filling for a magnetic set of failures, etc. An enormous work of inventory has being carried out by the police chiefs of the exposure, John P. Jacob and his wife Noriko Fuku.

The exposure wants to be chronological, divided into four parts. Years of youth in New York (1890-1921). Paris between 1921 - date of its first rayogrammes* which make it reach the statute of artistic photographer - and 1940. Escape of the Nazism which exiles it in Los Angeles (1940-51), where it is not included/understood but meets Juliet, its future MUSE. Their return to Paris of 1951 to 1976, where the artist is officially recognized (medal of Arts and the Letters given by the French State). This last period is marked by the resumption of its paintings of youth in lithographies and its counterparts of single objects. Skeptic as for will have objets d'art, the reproduction on an industrial scale agrees perfectly in Man Ray.

“It is a question here of apprehending the work of Man Ray in a more intimate way, to discover the objects to which the artist held”, explains John P. Jacob. “You will perhaps not see the masterpieces of Man Ray”, connects Marc Restellini, “but the objects which lead to its masterpieces.”

The subtitle of the exposure “Unconcerned drank not indifferent” constitutes the name of a work of Man Ray. It is also the epitaph chosen by Juliet for the tomb that it divides with the artist, with the cemetery of Montparnasse. “Such a heading expresses the complex relation that Man Ray maintained with her art, her public, and the heritage which was it his. […] this exposure wants to be before a a whole meditation on the destiny of the work of Man Ray after her disappearance, out of the control which it could exert on it of alive sound”, explain the police chiefs of the exposure. Indeed, after the death of the artist of many objects disappeared from its Parisian workshop (2 bis rue Férou, Paris VIe) and certain pullings not - authorized are arisen on the market. From where scandal…

It is felt here that Man Ray Trust wants to prove the legitimacy of her existence and to put a term at the rumour which claims that works which it holds are of less importance that those of the Centre Pompidou. While helping to make known the process of thought and the manner of working of a legendary artist, with complex and enigmatic work.

*Rayogrammes (1921/22): In her darkroom, Man Ray places several objects of glass on a sensitive sheet of paper, soaked with revealing. When it lights the light, it notes: “Under my eyes an image took form. It was not completely a simple silhouette of the objects as in a normal photograph because they were deformed and refracted by glasses […]”.