Man Ray in DaDa, Surrealist movement
Man Ray, born in 1890, was an American visual artist who spent most of his career in Paris. He was a significant contributor to the Dada and Surrealist movements.
While he was closely associated with these movements, he is best described as an iconoclast driven by a deep commitment to both personal and artistic freedom.
Man Ray abandoned conventional painting to involve himself with the radical Dada movement. He published two Dadaist periodicals, The Ridgefield Gazook (1915) and TNT (1919), co-edited by Adolf Wolff and Mitchell Dawson. He started making objects and developed unique mechanical and photographic image-making methods.
What is Rayograph(photogram)?
Ray, Man. Untitled Rayograph, 1922. gelatin silver photogram, 23.5 x 17.8 cm
Man Ray faced the challenge of creating art through a new approach during the height of the Dada and Surrealist movements. “Man Ray stumbled upon the rayograph technique when he accidentally mixed in an unexposed sheet of photosensitive paper with exposed sheets in the developing tray in 1921.
Having waited in vain for an image to appear on the photosensitive paper, he placed a few objects on it (probably intended to serve as paper-weights), then turned the light on. The contour of the objects that began to emerge on the paper was an image produced not only without a camera, but also without the need to use photographic film: the shadow or the spectral trace of an object was directly impressed on the photosensitive paper support by means of light alone” (Fotiade 90).
Man Ray: Les Champs Délicieux (The Delicious field) in Surrealism
Man Ray (American, 1890 – 1976), “Les champs délicieux”, 1922. Preface by Tristan Tzara (French, born Romania, 1896 – 1963)
In 1922, Tzara praised Man Ray’s rayographs in the introduction to (The delicious field)Les Champs Délicieux, a portfolio of cameraless photographs. The composition of black and white, uniform intervals in photo regulations, the contrast creating depth of field, and the sewing lines in front of the print are the most distinctive characteristics of Man Ray’s work.
In 1923, French poet Robert Desnos celebrated their spontaneous beauty, likening them to poetry for blending abstraction and realism. Even as the novelty of the rayograph declined, Man Ray’s rising artistic and social status as a prominent portrait and fashion photographer provided him with financial stability and the freedom to focus on painting and other artistic pursuits.
In publishing these surrealist artists’ books, binding is also a significant part of surrealist books. Surrealist books often had limited print runs, with some texts initially published without illustrations and later released as luxury editions featuring artwork. Bindings played a crucial role in elevating these books as material and commercial objects, with some Surrealists commissioning bespoke bindings from craftsmen like Paul Bonet (Adamowicz 272).
Man Ray: Facile (1935) in Surrealism
In Facile (1935), Éluard’s five poems accompanied Man Ray’s eleven photographic variations of Nusch, Éluard’s wife and model. Using techniques like cropping, negative printing, overexposure, multiple exposure, and solarization, Man Ray transformed Nusch’s nude form into a surreal and fragmented subject, de-naturalizing her figure.
Éluard’s poems complemented this by metaphorically extending, exposing, and veiling Nusch’s image, creating a dialogue between text and image. The interplay of minimalist contours in the photographs and the poetic text blurred the boundaries between the figure and the printed page, enhancing the surreal effect.
Comparison between Man Ray and other surrealist artists books
Compared to other surrealist artist’s books like Joan Miró and Salvador Dalí, Man Ray created smooth composition of the text and photography in artist books. The book published by Éluard with the German artist Hans Bellmer, Les jeux de la poupée (Paris: Les Editions Premières, 1949), Éluard chose fifteen hand-colored silver gelatin prints to which he added short poetic texts. Texts and photographs are kept separate, the photographs printed on the right-hand page, the texts in the lower half of the left-hand page (Adamowicz 284).
However, Man Ray’s women nude figure centered in the right spot of the print when turning the pages in the book. “The minimalism of the contours of the body reduces it to a graphic sign, echoed in the outline of the text, while the overexposed photograph merges the figure with the printed page (Adamowicz 282)”.
The discovery of the rayograph was inventive so that Man Ray became famous and successful. “The Rayograph helped make Man Ray a celebrity…Man Ray was invited to fashionable parties, concerts, and gallery openings and was embraced by fashionable young women, including Kiki, Paris’s most notorious model (Adamowicz)”. Man Rays’ invention of the rayograph, also known as photogram, came to occupy a central role in Surrealist activity.
In fashion photography, Man Ray’s use of close cropping, solarization, and rayography influenced the creative use of negative space in commercial print publications. His work masterfully blended abstraction and realism, blurring the lines between photography and other visual arts. To this day, many photographers continue to employ Man Ray’s techniques.
Bibliography
Adamowicz, Elza. “The Surrealist Artist’s Book: Beyond the Page.” The Princeton
University Library Chronicle, vol. 70, no. 2, 2009, pp. 265–92. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.25290/prinunivlibrchro.70.2.0265. Accessed 22 Jan. 2025.
Berg, Charles Merrell. “Man Ray Creates the Rayograph.” Salem Press Encyclopedia, Jan.
Eluard, et al. “Facile by Paul Eluard, Man Ray on Triolet Rare Books.” Triolet Rare Books,
Editions GLM, www.trioletrarebooks.com/pages/books/2245/paul-eluard-man-ray/facile. Accessed 22 Jan. 2025.
Foresta, Merry A. “Man Ray.” Grove Art Online. 2003. Oxford University Press. Date of access 23 Jan. 2025, <https://www.oxfordartonline.com/groveart/view/10.1093/gao/9781884446054.001.0001/oao-9781884446054-e-7000053862>
Fotiade, Ramona. “Spectres of Dada: From Man Ray to Marker and Godard.” Avant-Garde
Critical Studies, vol. 27, Jan. 2012, pp. 89–106. EBSCOhost, research.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=cde3f0a7-42b1-36af-b671-da14408c5afe.
Kaninsky, Martin. “Man Ray: Unconventional Visionary of Fine Art Photography.” About Photography, about photography, 21 May 2024, aboutphotography.blog/photographer/man-ray#:~:text=Photographic%20Style%20and%20Techniques,%22)%2C%20and%20double%20exposure.
“Man Ray (Emmanuel Radnitzky) | Moma.” MoMA, www.moma.org/artists/3716. Accessed 22 Jan. 2025.
“Man Ray and His Artworks.” Man Ray, www.manray.net/. Accessed 22 Jan. 2025.
“Man Ray: Rayograph.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1 Jan. 1970,
www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/265487.
Ray, Man, and Tristan Tzara. “Les Champs Délicieux (the J. Paul Getty Museum Collection).” Getty, www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/1040NA. Accessed 22 Jan. 2025.
Ray, Man. Photographs by Man Ray: 105 Works, 1920-1934. Dover Publications, 1979.
Ray, Man. Self Portrait: Man Ray. Little, Brown & Company (Canada), 1963.
Ray, Man. Untitled Rayograph, 1922. gelatin silver photogram, 23.5 x 17.8 cm
Voorhies, James. “Surrealism: Essay: The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History.” The Met’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, Oct. 2004, www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/surr/hd_surr.htm.
