Man Ray: Shapes of Light

Imbued with humor, strangeness and eroticism, Man Ray's work defies categorization and celebrates the power of imagination

A photographer, painter, draftsman, filmmaker and inventor defined by a stringent creative freedom, Man Ray (1890–1976) turned every medium into a field of experimentation. His greatest contributions, however, were in the field of photography, elevating it to a full-fledged art form with iconic works such as Le Violon d'Ingres and Noire et blanche. The formal audacity and poetic visual language he brought to fashion photography continue to inspire creatives to this day. Through a collection of original and archival materials from the collection of the Palazzo Reale, Shapes of Light traces Man Ray's entire artistic career, from his dabbling in the New York art scene to his years in Paris collaborating with Marcel Duchamp and the Surrealists. Thematic chapters dedicated to self-portraits, muses, nudes, rayographs, solarizations and fashion combine his most memorable works with rarely seen sketches, preparatory studies, outtakes and other ephemera.