Self Portrait: Man Ray - Softcover

Ray, Man

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0821224743 ISBN 13: 9780821224748

Publisher: Bulfinch, 1999

Synopsis

Man Ray's extraordinary autobiography, now in a lavishly illustrated paperback edition, reveals the entertaining life and times of this remarkable artist.
Legendary photographer, painter, creator of objects, and filmmaker, Man Ray was one of the most versatile and inventive artists of this century. From Greenwich Village to Paris to Hollywood and back to Paris, Man Ray figured prominently in the avant-garde, Dada, and Surrealist movements. Self Portrait is Man Ray's extremely frank autobiography, long unavailable in English. This new edition, now available for the first time in paperback, is fully illustrated with 250 pictures, in color and black and white. Many of these pictures had never before been published; others have become part of popular culture, such as The Gift, an iron studded with tacks, and The Lovers, his huge painting of lips floating in the Paris sky.

About this title

About the Author

Born Emmanuel Radnitzky (1890-1976), Man Ray grew up in America but spent the greater part of his life as an emigre in Paris. Man Ray's art ranges from painting, sculpture, collage, constructed objects and photography. Beginning in 1921, he received hundreds of commissions for portraits and commercial work which were featured in publications such as Vogue, Vu, Harper's Bazaar and Vanity Fair. He was an American, but worked in Paris from 1921 to 1940, when Duchamp, Stieglitz, Picasso and Dali were among his colleagues. A member of the Dada art movement and the only American member of the Paris Surrealist movement, Man Ray considered himself an artist and thought of photography as a medium of artistic expression when used for more than reproduction. In describing his work, Man Ray once said, 'I paint what can not be photographed. I photograph what I do not wish to paint.'

From Publishers Weekly

Born in Philadelphia, raised in Brooklyn, wiry, kinetic Man Ray (1890-1976) set Paris, New York and Hollywood spinning as he shifted between mediums (painting, photography, film, surreal objects) and fused them. This jaunty, chatty autobiographyfirst published in 1963 and now decked out with 240 illustrationsoffers arresting glimpses of Dada and Surrealism in their heydays. Man Ray always keeps a sense of humor about himself and the avant-garde happenings swirling around him. His photographs of Dali, Picasso, Gertrude Stein, Hemingway and Joyce are vintage. Of even greater interest is the endless profusion of Man Ray images: dream compositions, typographical poems, airbrush nudes, moving sculpture, Cubist landscapes, a cymbals-and-drum machine, mannequins, experimental photographs. Pictures and text attest to this artist's rare gift for rendering ideas in multiple formats.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Bulfinch
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0821224743
• ISBN 13: 9780821224748
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 352