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Man Ray (born as Emmanuel Radnitzky) was a modernist artist, who played a significant role in the Dada and Surrealist movements. Man Ray explored many genres including photography, painting, sculpture, collage, assemblage and performance.

Man Ray was born in Philadelphia to a family of Russian-Jewish Immigrants. At the age of seven, his family moved to Brooklyn, New York, where the family changed its surname to simply “Ray” to escape anti-Semitic discrimination. Most art historians believe that Ray was influenced by his father’s tailoring business, which he ran from home, and his mother’s practice of making clothes and patchwork. The creativity and craftsmanship of his parents came through in young Man Ray. At primary school, he showed strong drafting skills and often visited art museums. After high school, Man Ray declined a scholarship to study architecture and set-up a studio in his parents home. He was able to make some money doing commercial art and illustration.

In 1912 Man Ray enrolled in the Ferrer School, where he could formally study art. Around the same time Man Ray met Marcel Duchamp who soon became a friend and influence in his work and life. By 1915 Many Ray had his first solo show, exhibiting paintings, drawings and assemblages. It would be a few years until he focused on experimental photography.

As Man Ray’s work progressed he became more involved in the Dada movement, which emphasized conceptual practices and use of “ready-mades”. In 1920 he worked with Duchamp and Katherine Dreier to found the Société Anonyme and publish “New York Dada”.

In 1921 Man Ray decided to move to Paris, and settled in the Montparnasse quarter for the next twenty years. In Paris, Man Ray produced photographs and experimental films with some of the most well known avant-garde, surrealist and dada artists. Ray exhibited with Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró, Jean Arp and Max Ernst, among others.

Man Ray also produced many photographs of the model, Kiki de Montparnasse, with whom he had a relationship for a short time.

Eventually Man Ray practiced innovative photographic techniques, which he referred to as “rayograms”. Man Ray’s assistant photographer, Lee Miller was also his lover for many years.

During the Second World War, Man Ray left Paris and returned to the United States. At this time Man Ray travelled to Los Angeles, where he met Juliet Browner, whom he married in a “double wedding” alongside Max Ernst and Dorothea Tanning.

Man Ray grew discontent in the United States and returned to Paris, where he spent the last years of his life. Man Ray is now known as one of the most important modern artists of the dada and surrealist movements. Do you think you own a work by Man Ray? Contact us. We are the Man Ray experts.