Man Ray: Writings on Art

by Jennifer Mundy (Editor)

Man Ray (1890 –1976) was a pioneer of the Dada movement in the United States and France and a central protagonist of Surrealism. Today he is one of the best-known American artists of the twentieth century, celebrated above all for his innovative and often seductively glamorous photography. Surprisingly, given Man Ray’s key role in the history of early-twentieth-century Modernism, a comprehensive collection of his writings on art has not been published in English until now.
 
Man Ray: Writings on Art fills a conspicuous gap in scholarship on the artist and his period. It brings together his most significant writings, many of them published here for the first time. These occasionally quixotic texts, which include artist books, essays, interviews, letters, and visual poems, reveal the incredible scale of the artist’s output and the remarkable continuity of his aesthetic and political beliefs. This volume offers a long overdue vision of Man Ray as someone who used words both as a creative medium and as a means of articulating ideas about the nature and value of art. With richly reproduced illustrations, it provides powerful insight not only to scholars of art history and academics, but also to working artists and those who count themselves as Man Ray fans.

Genres: Art

424 pages, Hardcover

First published January 15, 2016

Reviews

[Tosh · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a kid, I loved Man Ray. Almost the same way I loved Dali. But, I outgrew them both. Not like Marcel Duchamp who has consistently been an art-god to me. What I do admire Man Ray is his brilliant photographs - especially his portraits of well-known artists and writers - as well as his more 'artful' images he took. The paintings are at times great, but I feel his work was never consistent. His sculptures I consider to be much better than his paintings as well. Which comes to this book "Man Ray: Writings on Art," a collection of his texts that were both published and unpublished, that mostly focused on the nature of art-making, or more likely with him, his regret that he wasn't more excepted in the world of the fine arts.

Man Ray was born in Brooklyn, but moved to Paris, where he found his calling and talent at the most beautiful time in the 20th century arts. DADA and Surrealism were right outside his door, and he participated in both groups with great intensity - yet, due to the War, he had to move back to the U.S., specifically Los Angeles - which was a mixed blessing for him. Being an international artist in Los Angeles at that time, was sort of like being abandoned in the desert. There was great company of European artists at the time, but he felt a great distance from Paris - and as he had mentioned in his writings and in conversation - New York is behind Paris, and Los Angeles is behind New York. Still, he worked on Vine Street and produced a great deal of art as well as photos. Which ironically, he never cared for photography as an occupation. And seemed to have a chip-on-his-shoulder regarding Photograph as an art or not. Painting it seems was the ideal art form - but, he never was fully accepted as a painter - in the critical manner.

This book, is beautifully edited and designed. The magazine or book lay-out's of his photos is superb as well. The editing of the text, and the commentary by Jennifer Mundy is very knowledgable as well as interesting. The only weak link is Man Ray's actual writings. His work overall in that field is not that interesting. He's no Duchamp type of thinker, and mostly he is a little bit pissed off that he's not better known in America. Still, the book has much worth as a study on 20th Art, as well as a study on DADA/Surrealist practices and aesthetics. I remember reading Man Ray's memoir, which was very enjoyable (I read it years ago), but when he gets serious about 'art' he loses his sense of playfulness - which in actuality, is the big part of the Man Ray aesthetic. So, do get the book (it's a beauty) and use it as a reference, but with no fault of his own, Man Ray is not that great of a commentator on the arts. Still, there are wonderful moments in the book. Mostly in the end of this volume, when he wrote a diary of thoughts, that is charming. As well as one-sentence commentary on his famous sitters for their photo portraits. So, yeah, a real mixed bag here.

[Lee Barry · Rating 5 out of 5]

What I like about books of correspondence is to marvel at how much people wrote to each other--in long form, not just in little text messages.

It's also interesting to read vis-a-vis the recent multi-million dollar sale of "Le Violon d'Ingres", the most expensive photograph ever to sell at auction.

Cherry-picked takeaways:

* Thought painting was dead but still did it "to convince himself of its inanity". "Painting is dead, finished."
* Some modern things tire some people all over.
* Having painted and drawn all my life, a solitary occupation (and not the less satisfactory for that), I found in photography, besides the fascination of a new medium, a new element of social contact that involved an entirely different problem. It was as if suddenly a mirror had been held up to myself as well as to the reactions of others.
* You will perish if you are not abreast of the last word in the development of art, arms, aviation, dialectics, fashion, illumination, literature, love-making, physical culture, photography...not the latest fads that will be laughed at tomorrow, but the incomprehensible daily discoveries and additions regarded now with suspicion and contempt and dismissed as tricks. The tricks of today are the truths of tomorrow.

[Apryl Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a copy of this book from netgalley in return for a fair and honest review. 5-stars for amount of research and sheer amount of compilation. 3-stars for interest level, although that's based on my surreal expectations, perhaps. The intro was dead boring, which surprised me. I wanted to see more quirky evidence--come to think of it, I was delving for clues on how to unleash my own cheeky observations and world view. This isn't intended to be a book on 'How to Find Your Own Voice,' although it is a good one on how Emmanuel Radnitsky found his.

[Eileen Hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fascinating account of Emmanuel Radnitsky - Man Ray - son of Russian emegres, who like most immigrants to America westernised their surnames.
This book is about his early life in Philadelphia and later Brooklyn.
How he developed his art through his writings and correspondence.
I was given a digital copy of this book by the publisher Getty Publications via Netgalley in return for an honest unbiased review.

[John Shaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

The thoughts and work of one of the best,
most influential artists of our time.