Man Ray's Paris Portraits 1921-39 (Art Photography)

Page 1







an wiaui Oorh-aits:

s J>ariÂŽ

1921-39



<zro

JJlaui s J>ariÂŽ

Ooriraiis:

1921-39

Revised Edition

Timothy Baum


This publication

is

the catalog for the exhibition

Man Rays Pan's

Museum

in St. Petersburg.

Portraits: 1921-39, at the Salvador Dali

Florida,

September

This exhibition

All

Copyright

27th, 1997 to January 18th. 1998.

sponsored

is

photographs

©

1997

in

pan by NationsBank.

in this publication.

Man Ray

All text copyright

©

Trust ARS.

New

York.

Timothy Baum.

ISBN 0-9660353-0-5 All rights reserved.

Cover:

A Group of surrealists at

Tzara

s

House, 1930.

SALVADOR DALI MUSEUM EDITIONS




\jaclkeiJfian J^ia )

which

'achet, as that

uct from that

if

any and

you were

have your photographic

your time unless you gained yourself a prestigious

art:

Why Man finest

Man

one master's work or prod-

of the others. In the early 1920s in Paris, one learned quickly

all

to

differentiates the specialty of

sitting

Ray. People flocked to

him

one can immediately

Ray?",

portrait

made, you would be wasting

with the only resident master of

inquire. Certainly

because he was the

of his profession. Finest, as in most proficient: measured by the highest quality

of imagination mixed with technical prowess. With

one can

still

question

how

a foreigner, particularly

all

such vigorous encomiums,

one so recently

could have such a resounding impact on a society so notorious for ity

this

accordingly.

and

And

related judgmental barriers.

not only

was

this

arrived in Paris.

its

obdurate

rigid-

gentleman a foreigner, but

a Dadaist as well. Imagine!

Man

Ray,

then.

Fresh from

European sophistication (and Belgian-born wife,

Adon

New

York,

related fantasy)

Lacroix,

but seasoned to a certain level of

from such associations as

and one grand friendship with the

Marcel Duchamp. Thus did he arrive quite proudly on French

and never

thereafter did

he

his estranged

feel desirous of departing,

except

soil in

when

inimitable

July of 1921,

the arrival of the

German army in his beloved Paris tumbled all reality asunder. By the end of 1921, Man had become an integral member of the Paris Dada group. He was the only American to fit snugly into its mischievous midst, and nimbly did he become one of its most enterprising participants. Within a few months of his arrival, a one-man show of his work was mounted at the Librairie Six gallery-book-


shop,

owned by

bition

evoked great enthusiasm within the Dada ranks, but not a

sold.

Man

a brother Dadaist, Philippe Soupault,

(created!) the portraits of

many

had photographed the work of various other

artists

of his

exhi-

work was

adroitness with the camera spread. greatly.

By

he

cronies. Also,

news of

his originality

and

the second year his breadth of subjects

had

Represented (and proudly

community: James Joyce, Erik

Dada

such as Picabia and Jacques

Villon to subsidize his quavering income. Quickly did

cultural

single

The

his attention to his ever-ready alternate career of studio photographer.

he had taken

expanded

his wife, Mick.

Ray, a bit crestfallen but hardly defeated, took the advice of several friends

and reairned Earlier

and

so!)

Satie.

were most of the

Juan

Gris,

Gertrude

superstars of the Stein,

all

of the

—you name them! Painting was tem-

Dadaists, Jean Cocteau, Leger, Matisse, Picasso porarily

abandoned, but "rayographs" emerged to

ular cravings,

fulfill

his imagination's extracurric-

and soon the album Les Champs Delicieux had been produced

in

elegant fashion.

By

the middle of 1922, Vanity Fair

and from June of that year its

until well into the

Man Ray

following decade, his

as portraitist,

work appeared

in

pages.

'or the

formed

and the in

magazine had enlisted

his

first

several months,

photographic

closet, furthermore,

Man compromised

activities in the

doubled up as

with his spare budget, and per-

confines of his hotel room.

his darkroom-laboratories.

worse of him. The wonderful, ceremonial group 1921

was posed

in this

very room, in

of the aforementioned literary

and

relax there. Within a short time,

and moved

to a

fact,

The bathroom

Nobody thought

portrait of the Paris Dadaists

hideous wallpaper and

art celebrities

found

little

however Man Ray was able

all,

and most

reason not to

sit

and

to accelerate his ante,

charming duplex studio-apartment on the rue Campagne-Premiere.


This remained his base of operations for several years to come. finally

home.

why Man Ray was awarded

Again you might ask Immediately must to

Man

was

Man Ray was

to

I

reiterate

Ray's arrival, the

don your

chair at

best

he was that proficient

main manner or

suit,

veil,

in

which

Manuel

have your personal

to

saidios.

instantaneous popularity.

the photographic calling. Prior

at

lace collar, or brooch,

one of the vanity photographic

Martinies or chez

this

and

done

portrait

so solemnly in the

The two grandest were

Whichever you picked, the

Freres.

sit

result

Henri

at

would be much

somewhat agonizing experience. Usually the turned out somewhere between whimsical and downright funereal rarely

the same: a stiff-backed, overly-posed, final print

was

—

A

either extreme the bewildered sitters intention.

visit

chez

Man Ray was

entirely another experience.

Man

mused them. Each portrait was a art.

Ray, as

No two

I

sittings

were

in

state:

earlier text, did not take

separate

little

alike for him,

mate occasion. Neil Baldwin, set" that

an

adventure; the resultant print of a

and every separate

in his biography, likens

of "the sportsman out for a day in the

Man

Ray, as portrait photographer,

end of the mid-1920s, few the threshold of

Man

be created as love

was

then

If

sitting

Man Ray

field."

the

of the Parisian social

Ray's studio, to pose.

affairs,

photographs, but created

I

artistic

a form of

further elaborate

hunter, in love.

inti-

"mind

to a hunter, his

would

consummate

and

was

work of

By

and the

hierarchy had not crossed

intimate photographic encounters could

Man Ray was

the only Casanova (or Rasputin?) of

photography since the nineteenth century's grand master, Nadar. Surely of achievement in twentieth century portraiture.

in the annals

Man Ray would have no

equal.

Other photographers of the Parisian free-lance brigade would come and go with

The elegant Baron de Meyer was toasted in some George Hoyningen-Huene. The only one who emerged to overlap

their respective, insular clienteles. circles; similarly,


occasionally with

Man

own

Ray's

immediate coterie was his ex-apprentice

Berenice Abbott. Miss Abbott gained a definite popularity in Paris.

Her

portraits

among

the literary

were generally competent, even memorable from time

but rarely dynamic or lustrous. She tended to cease probing her subjects of their physical boundaries, rents.

Man

and

and

the edges

rarely penetrated to their psychological undercur-

souls.

As the years wore on, but always with painting as

Man Ray at least

ingly overlap, as in the results of

nuity

at

crowd

to time,

Ray, using their physical features as a point of departure, often exited just

short of their hearts

Meanwhile

assistant,

his

continued with photography as his profession,

an equal devotion. Often the two would

many

shiver-

of his experimentation's with solarization.

boundaries as photographer continued to expand. Quickly his inge-

was recognized and admired by

the fashion houses and from early

working closely with such glamour designers as

Poiret, Patou, le

on he was

Long, and

Mans

personal friend, Elsa Schiaparelli. Similarly, throughout the two decades preceding the

Second World War,

his

work was

Charm, Vogue, Harper's Bazaar,

etcetera,

Throughout these same two decades

avidly sought

by the fashion magazines:

both in Europe and back

Man became, and

in

New

York.

remained, the portrait-

photographer-laureate of Paris (and, conceivably, the entire world). His reputation

never retreated from the highest plateau, for not only did his technical consistently lofty, but his ever-imaginative

skill

remain

approach to innovative poses and

settings

never waned, and always there was the excitement of being his next subject.

Man dream

was as diverse as any single studio could ever Though he was not a lavish socializer, more a lone wolf in fact,

Ray's array of portrait subjects

to assemble.

he managed to meet, mingle with, and usually delight a cross-section of people from every stratum of society, and every corner of the subjects

was mostly

limited to writers

and

arts.

painters,

it

Where

his earliest portfolio of

soon spread

to the neighboring


constellations of architects,

Milhaud,

musicians, and composers (Satie, Stravinsky, Antheil,

Georges Auric;

Taillefene,

wonderful

the

indelibly

Clement Doucet and Jean Wiener, elegantly posed with pianos);

and

actors

and dancers and nightclub performers

double-portrait

their miniature

(Barbette, for example,

always the ebullient Kiki de Montparnasse, perhaps his most favorite subject of Greatness of reputation in

and

all!).

always the surest disperser of austere social barricades

is

From

the grander circles of Paris society.

accepted by one

of

practice

the early years onward,

aristocratic celebrity or family after another. First

came

Man was

the eccentric

but captivating Marquise Casati, then the supremely elegant Comte Etienne de

Beaumont who befriended our hero and his

and

gala parties

balls.

invited

Similarly did

Man

Greffuhle (once considered the most beautiful

who

used her as

role

model

for at least

him

to photographically immortalize

visit

the

woman

in

homes

of the Comtesse

France by Marcel Proust,

two of the more

scintillating

Guermantes

now on in years, but still youthful and inquisitive enough to teach her how to develop photographs in her personal, makeshift

ladies in his epic novel,

entreat

Man Ray

to

darkroom: a noble adventure indeed!). Also the Comte and Comtesse Pecci-Blunt, the Comtesse de Chevigne and her entourage, the recently

Gramont, and eventually the great patrons of the

Vicomte and Vicomtesse (Charles and Marie-Laure) de loyal

and encouraging

's

the 1920s

who

jokingly with the crash of the world's

cast

its

pall

upon

and many suffered accordingly. Luckily pher of the land, vanity the parade of clients

the charming,

Noailles,

convivial

remained ever-

friends.

ended

an immediate sobriety

arts,

widowed Duchesse de

still

economic markets,

the frivolities of the wild for

Man

and carefree

prevailed to outduel the dwindled pocketbook, and

wended

on. Surrealism

era,

Ray, as premier portrait photograstill

had superseded Dada, and new faces


appeared each successive season: Dali and Miro; de Chirico (now pioneer) and Tanguy; Meret Oppenheim. Rene Crevel, Magritte, Rene Char, Victor Brauner, the

ingenue Gisele Prassinos: an entire Generally, as the

was always Virginia

new

roll-call.

generation of talent emerged from their cocoons,

there with his camera to catch

them

Huxley.

in their glories:

Woolf and other Londoners passing through town

for a

visit:

Man Ray

T. S. Eliot,

visiting

grand

masters as Kurt Schwitters and Kandinsky; a never-aging Picasso, and graying but ever-twinkling Picabia. Hardly did the rustiness of the Depression years gready nish the sparkle of the personality parade that always

made

tar-

Paris the pinnacle city of

high style and excitement. Rarely did ters: artists

Man Ray

and

simply because

writers,

stray

from

Man Ray was

series of portraits

his limitless

glamorous people of

domains of preferred subject mat-

society.

he made of the

Socialist

autobiography (Self Portrait),

ated between those

who he

course (his usual studio

Man Ray

whom Man

spent parts of his

suggests that he strongly differenti-

charged for his photographic services as a matter of

clients),

and those

who he

photographed

and confederates,

admired. The exceptions were the few of the

exceptionally well-heeled, or the occasional person

was an example of

with the distinction).

this

for the sheer plea-

as well as

anybody

who were either Man felt had previ-

latter category-

whose

career

ously advanced as a result of earlier photographic assistance Stein

the

Prime Minister of France, Monsieur Leon

sure of their company: most personal friends truly

—was

vacations.

In his

he

interesting exception

a particularly non-political world citizen

Blum, but Blum was a close, personal friend with

summer

One

on

his behalf (Gertrude

minute category, and evidently was not

at all

pleased


Sometimes Man cX,

Lewis subsequent to winning the Pulitzer Prize for

Windsor soon

after

her historic marriage, etcetera).

nity to immortalize the

Literature.

Once

did

grandeur of an important personage

the stately 1922 deathbed portrait of Marcel Proust. Again,

Man

moments of

Ray's portraits coincided with the greater

his sub-

careers or lives (James Joyce at the time of the publication of Ulysses, Sinclair

jects'

it

The Duchess of

Man have

at

the opportu-

the time of his death:

was

certainly a tribute to

was cho-

Ray's reputation that in this earliest period of his residency in Paris he

sen for

this

honor (hardly was

for a visiting

American

Throughout

sanctum bedroom the romping ground

was always an endless

his career as portrait photographer, there

schemes and suggestions by others concerning how Man could enhance

dribble of his career

Proust's inner

Dadaist!).

and

related earnings. Except for the inevitable acceptance of contracts with

fashion houses and fashion magazines, he politely excused himself from such offers.

One

more

of the

described to

diverting proposals

Hemingway

was

as "the wickedest

that proffered

man

description of the incident in his autobiography

is

by

worth the

Crowley (once

Aleister

in the world").

Man

bemused

Ray's

re-telling as follows:

whom I'd heard of in connecNew York. We were sitting in a

"There was a strange character, Aleister Crowley, tion with various suspect activities in

cafe with

some

friends;

he took

many wealthy women who came

—why not

said

scope

in

tell

me to

London and

aside to speak

him

more

for horoscopes.

We

confidentially.

could work together, he

those that wished to be photographed that

I

required their horo-

order to portray them properly; on his side he would

client for a

horoscope

that

he needed a

portrait of

did not need the extra business, the proposition that, blessedly,

Man Ray

He knew

tell

a prospective

her to complete his analysis. As

was not adopted."

Suffice

it

I

to say

did not need to resort to gimmickry to assert the novelty of

the grandeur of his talent.


As

many

a final note,

I

must make

other photographers,

brief

Man

mention of the studies

Ray's

abridged autobiography of his entire adult study shows us a well-dressed

man

life.

of

Man

of himself created

The

approaching

self-portraits

Ray. Unlike

a

miniartire,

early (1924), rather formal self-

thirty-five years

of age

who was

caught in the void between early success and related lingering doubts as to the course of his future destiny. Later his

changing milieux: in the

proud

porters, activity

back

not so analytic,

surrealists' midst, at the

in his studios, etcetera.

dignified Paul Eluard,

self-portraits,

The

one of Man

in military attire after

and achievement, resigned

most cherished

twenty to

go

civilian years

Man

Ray's

tales,

in

balls, relaxing in cafes,

to

war

Paris friends

and

loyal sup-

again. liaisons of the present cen-

two decades of mutual love and admiration, between the two wars,

with and within the dreams and romantic

Man Ray

of merry and meritous poetic

Thus was one of the most beautiful and purposeful tury.

us

study presented here depicts a sober and

final

Ray's

grand

show

we

realities

of the Ville de Paris. Unlike most such

have a vivid visual record of

moments: Man Ray's

Paris portraits, hopefully

these pages once again.

all

of

its

characters

brought back to

life

for

and great

you within



1.

Philippe Soupault. 1921. Pioneer

where Man Ray had from America.

his

first

Dada poet and editor; co-owner of the bookshop gallery. Librairie Six, one-man exhibition in December 1921. the same year as his arrival

Paris



2.

A Group ofParis Dadaists, gant Paris

Dada

Ribemont-Dessaignes;

Charchoune.

1921. Fun-loving, but always interesting

brigade! Seated, from

standing:

left

Paul

and

intelligent as well, the zany, ele-

Georges and Serge

to right: Paul Eluard. Jacques Rigaut. "Mick" Soupault.

Chadourne.

Tristan

Tzara.

Philippe

Soupault



3.

Gertrude Stein

anyone

and Alice B.

Toklas. 1921.

A

chapter unto

They didn't leave until almost everyone remembered and admired accordingly. else.

They arrived and settled had already departed. They

itself.

else

in before will

most

always be



4.

Georges Braque, 1922.

Man Ray met and photographed them

strong, continuing his work amidst the uncertainty of bled upon the madcap, postwar Paris scene, undaunted.

and

all

all

(well, almost). Braque.

proud and erect

the newer tendencies and movements tum-



5.

Pierre Mac Orlan. 1922. Novelist

and man of

letters,

member

of the ever-carefree Montparnasse cafe

set.



6.

Marie Lcutrencin, 1922. One might wonder to cross

as well.

Man

at

how

the painter of such bourgeois subjects

Ray's threshold, but never forget that she frolicked with Picabia

would come

and Guillaume

Apollinaire.



7.

Paul Ehiard.

whom

1922. Another

member

of the original Paris

Dada group;

he collaborated on such seminal works as Les Mai) is Libres and

close friend of

Facile, until his

Man

Ray, with

death in 1952.



8.

James Joyce,

1922. (Quintessential!) Irish expatriate writer in Paris. This portrait

time of the publication of

Ulysses.

made

at

the approximate



9.

Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes, 1922. Another of the most renowned poets of the Dada and groups; similarly (after Picabia. alongside Suzanne

Mechanical" painters of the time.

Duchamp and Jean

Crotti).

one of the most

surrealist

proficient



10.

Juan to

Gris, 1922. "In the early clays

Gertrude Stein brought Juan Gris to

be photographed with a high white

stiff collar,

as

if

my

studio.

for a family portrait..."

He came

prepared



11.

Marcel Proust on Ray

bis

Deathbed, 1922. At the suggestion of Jean Cocteau, the Proust family allowed

to enter the inner

sanctum of

their son's

(and brother's) bedchamber to

make

Man

this historic portrait



12.

Andre Derain

at his

the 3. One of Man Ray's favorite friends outside love for tailor-made clothing and fast-moving motorcars.

Drawing Board 1922

surrealist circle, sharing a

common

Dada/



13.

Jacques Rigaut,

c.

able, capricious: his cafe-society

1923.

Ah

he died by

yes. the his

world choked

charming and debonair Jacques Rigaut. Elegant, witty, personafter the Stock Market crash in 1929, the glamour of

own hand soon

to a halt,

and he

in

mourning.



14.

Benjamin in e\

est

Peret.

c.

en sense of

and oldest

1923. Another of the talented Dada/surrealist poets fraternity.

was companion

the word, he

fighting

'.

greatly

admired by Breton

who

later

A true

revolutionary

described him as his "dear-



15.

Edna

St.

Vincent Millay,

tographed

c.

1923. Celebrated

in this ideal Paris setting

during a

American poetess of the teens and twenties, pho-

visit

with expatriate friends.



16.

Robert Desnos, after

c.

1923. So

being discovered

in a

much

to say; so

little

time to say

it.

Born

in Paris. 1900;

Czechoslovakian concentration camp (Terezin)

tion, 1945. Ingenious, unforgettable surrealist personality

at

died a short time

the time of the Libera-

and poet, from one World War

to the other.



17.

Margaret Anderson andJane Heap, 1923 4. Coeditors of The Little Review, one of the most influential little magazines" of the 1920s. Founded by Anderson in Chicago in 1914, the magazine subsequently moved to New York, and then in 1923 to Paris. Between 1918 and 1920 The Little Review published Joyce's Ulysses

in

twenty-three installments, three issues of which were confiscated by the

U.S postal authorities: "Like a burning

at

the stake." according to Miss Anderson.



18.

Georges Auric, 1923/4. Avant-garde composer, Tailleferre

and

member

of "les Six" (with Milhaud. Honegger. Durey.

and Poulenc), and collaborator with various Dada and

Eluard.

surrealist poets including

Aragon



19.

Kiki de Montparnasse

and

and Friend,

peer. Therese Treize.

More

c.

1924. Originally "the friend"

was assumed

to

be

Kiki's great pal

careful research suggests her identity as the fabled "Youki" (born

Lucie Badoul). model and mistress of the twinkling Foujita. later the mistress, then wife of the enig-

matic Robert Desnos.


»^^y

i 1

;x<^ 3#^

V

m

—jj


20. Erik Satie. 1924.

modern music in France, adored some whimsical sort of spiritual friend

This charming, witty, superbly talented patriarch of

by Man Ray and his fellow Dadaists and serving for them and father. He died the year following this portrait sitting.

as



21. Barbette. 1924. Actual

name: Vander Clyde; Place of

high wire and trapeze, both

in circuses

and the

birth:

Round Rock.

greatest nightclubs

Texas. "Artiste supreme" of the and cabarets of the day. always in

superb, exquisite female costume, always diwilging the secret of his identity with muscular torso bared

and wig

in

hand

at

the

end of the performance.



22. Tristan Tzara, 1924.

A

Dadaist

but proud and relaxed in the

in exile at this

company

of

juncture of time (the year that surrealism superseded Dada),

Man

Ray, his lifetime admirer and ever-supportive friend.



23. Self-Portrait. 1924.

Probably the most formal and appealing of

all

of

Man

Ray's self-portraits: stylishly

elegant courtesy of his suddenly-evolved success as a major fashion photographer; faintly confounded

by the diminishment of

now

surrealist cronies.

his cherished activities as artist

and

related carefree dalliances with his Dada,



Aragon and Andre Breton, c. 1924. Literary allies and close personal friends, both were among who abandoned Paris Dada in favor of surrealism (as founded by Breton in 1924, with Aragon and Soupault as his loyal lieutenants).

24. Louis

the original group



25.

Helene Perdriat. ballet,

c.

Marcband

1925. Writer

and

painter, her versatility

d'oiseaux, presented

by Les

was exemplified by the production of her which she also designed the sets.

Ballets Suedois, for



26.

Raymond Queneau, with Breton as

"for

an important

1925. Surrealist writer (twenty-three years old at the time of this sitting),

personal reasons" novelist.

(i.e.

non-political)

who

by the end of the 1920s, and continued

broke

his career



27.

Janine, 1924/5. Described on a label affixed to verso: "JAXIXE. one of PATOU's French mannequins,

wearing a day ensemble

for Spring, 1925... Please credit

MAN

RAY." Business, as pleasure.



28.

Rene

Crerel.

c.

1925.

"ultimate surrealist".

The

"enfant terrible" of the surrealist poets, he

When

he chose

to take his

inscribed with a single word: "Degoute ".

life at

was regarded by Breton

the age of thirty-five, he

left

as

an

behind a note



29.

Marcel Ducbamp and Comte Raoul de Roussy de Sales Playing Chess title. I

think,

tells

it

all.

in

Man Rays Studio.

1925.

The



30.

Gertrude Stein, 1925 6. Like a heroine from the sagas of the Old West, this handsome portrait of one of the earliest settlers and dynastic matriarchs of the expatriate colony in Paris.



31

.

Sinclair Lewis. 1925. (for

Taken

at

Arrowsmith). Five years

the time of his

later

visit to

he became the

Paris following his reception of the Pulitzer Prize

first

American

to

win the Nobel

Prize for Literature.



32. Unidentified

American

Premiere. to return to

c. 1925. They came in droves, calling at 31bis Rue CampagneMemphis. Philadelphia or mansions along Fifth Avenue with the in hand: their photographic portrait by Man Ray

Society Lady. St.

Louis.

ultimate Paris souvenir of the era



33-

Hauelock Ellis, 1925 6. Another of the writers from across the Channel. Man Ray was surely fascinated this wizened gentleman, writer and psychologist, author of the seven volume Studies in the

by

Psychology of Sex at which

Ellis

had

toiled for over thirty years.



34. Kiki (en

6. Kiki was by far Man Ray's most versatile and obliging model in the most of the famous portraits present her in enticingly scanty attire or entirely rather formal image allows us a glimpse of the fuller range of her adaptable personality-

cbapeau), 1925

twenties. Although

naked,

and

this

repertoire.



35-

Wiener and Doucet, 1926. Jean Wiener (bespectacled) and Clement Doucet (content and well-fed) alternated as pianists at the honest 1920s club in Paris, Le boeuf sur le

works and

jazz.

toit.

playing both classical



36.

Kay Boyle,

c.

1926.

American expatriate short story writer "par excellence".



37.

Joan Miro, 1926

(or early 1930s?). Almost every

1930 or 1933- After conferring with Paris),

I'll

go along with

Billy

book

their well-researched

presence of a highly amused

Man

famous photograph dates

approximation of 1926 (the year

threatened to hang Miro with a thick-coiled rope in the

that cites this

it

as

Kluver and Julie Manin (co-authors of the marvelous Kiki's

Ray).

if

Max

Ernst jokingly

he didn't learn to become more conversational,



38.

Maty Butts, magic, and

1927. English expatriate short story writer and novelist,

whose work, long

forgotten,

is

who dabbled

blessedly being reprinted

in

drugs and black

and enjoyed once

again.



39-

Comtesse

Anna de

Noailles, 1927. Referred to

ever possessed", she lived her

last

Flanner: "The funeral floral offerings could not

flowed onto the porch and

by Janet Flanner

as:

"the greatest poetess France has

years in seclusion, and died at the age of fifty-nine. According to

steps..."

all

be contained even

in the vast

Madeleine but over-



40.

Aldous Huxley,

c.

and writers world.

Man Ray photographed almost all important visitors to Paris from the Among his British visitors were Huxley, the Anglo/ American T.S. Eliot, and

1928.

surprisingly, the shy

and reclusive

Virginia Woolf.

artists

rather



41.

Duchesse de Gramont, third wife of the still

in

her

late 1920s.

A

Due de Gramont

thirties,

she

is

daughter of the ancient Ruspoli family of Rome, she became the the age of seventeen. Here, still appearing quite youthful and

at

already a widow.


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Y k

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V ,,:t

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til •

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^^^^

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42.

A Group of surrealists at Tzara s House, 1930. From Man Ray; rear: Eluard. Arp. Tanguy and Crevel.

left

to right, front row: Tzara. Breton. Dali. Ernst.



43. Wassily

Kandinsky, 1930. Again, the welcome mat always

great ones should arrive in town.

at

the studio door

The honor was almost always mutual.

when

another of the



44.

Andre Breton

(solarized),

c.

1930. This

was one of

the earliest, and most highly successful, of

Man

Ray's "solarized" portraits. Burnishing the negative (usually of the glass plate variety) with a flash or

bead of intense

light,

he could highlight the image by outlining or distorting

caused the negative to become single solarized subject.

much more

fragile

than usual, and not

many

The technique were made of any

at will.

prints



45.

Marie-Berthe Aurenche, 1930/1.

abandoned by

Ernst

Leonora Carrington.

who

Max

Ernst's

second (of

four,

and only French)

wife, eventually

turned his attention instead to the young English surrealist painter.



46.

Rene Char, 1932/3- A decade younger than Breton. Eluard & Co., he first entered the in 1929. and remained one of the integral poets of the group from that time forth.

surrealist ranks



47.

Meret Oppenheim at the Printer's Wheel (z\so

ment of an print

known

as Erotique Yoilee), 1933-

interesting "shoot" at Marcoussis's etching atelier.

(one originating from

Man

Ray's

own

from 1933 which subsequently appeared

in

private collection)

Note is

that

dated 1935.

Minotaure magazine. No.

The pinnacle achieve-

even though

5 (in

it

May

this particular

actually 1934).

is

an image



48.

Lady Diana Duff Cooper (solarized). attempting a career as an actress British

ambassador

to France.

Man Duke of

1934. Another of

Originally Lady Diana Manners, daughter of the in films.

Ray's elegant visitors from England.

Rutland, she shocked her peers by

She married Alfred Duff Cooper,

who

later

became

the



49. Elsa Schiaparelli (solarized), 1934.

her non-aging "gamine" look.

The simple, small

hat of her

own

design, perfecting the purity of



50. Gisele

Prassinos Reading her Poems to

always specialists

in the art

Members of the surrealist Group,

1934/5.

The

surrealists

were

of "discovery". Here a solemn Breton and his twinklingly discerning

cronies pay careful attention to their newest protegee, fifteenth birthdays, with her brother looking

Prassinos, Andre Breton, Henri young poetess herself.

on

somewhere between her fourteenth and From left to right: Jean-Marie

in rapt admiration.

Parisot, Paul Eluard (seated),

Benjamin

Peret.

Rene Char and the



Hugo), 1935/6. The epitome of the possibilities offered by the solarizaHugo, an important surrealist painter, was also an important muse to her Breton and Eluard who thrived on her approving nods.

51. Solarized Profile (Valentine

tion technique. Valentine

peers, in particular



52.

artist, poet and editor (his magazine. 391, the ultimate Perhaps the only artist (outdistancing even Picasso?) who journeyed through every major tendency in 20th Century painting, including Post-Impressionism and Post-War abstraction.

Francis Picabia,

c.

publication of the

1935. Multi-talented

Dada

years).



53- Lily, c. 1935.

A

pretty face?

nious printing technique,

is

A

passing fancy? That, intermingled with the added mystique of an inge-

what separates

a

Man Ray from any

other photograph or photographer!



54.

Leon Blum. 1935/6. Leader of the French

Man Ray

Socialist Party;

devoted personal friend and admirer of



55.

Miriam Hopkins, 1936. Man Ray's portraiture output diminished towards the end of the always had time to set up for and welcome an interesting or vivacious new visitor.

1930s, but

he



56.

Paul Eluard

in Uniform. 1939-

a Swiss sanatorium recovering after

The

full circle.

Called

up

at the

end of

from tuberculosis. Eluard served

at

1914. after almost

the front, then

was

two years

in

hospitalized

being gassed. During a leave in 1917 he married an unforgettable young Russian. Helene Dim-

Diakanova. who he had met in the Davos sanatorium and upon whom he had bestowed the nickname "Gala". The marriage survived until 1930 when Gala succumbed to the bewitchment cast by a persistent and charming young Spaniard who had entered her life, and finally enjoined with the Spaniard. Senor Salvador Dali. Eluard grew to become the other most illustrious poet of the Dada surrealist era. alongside Breton. In 1939. with the threat of war become a reality. Eluard was mobilized a second time, and rejoined his regiment. The following year. Man Ray. as so many others, departed his beloved Paris as well: "With a farewell look at my studio and the feeling that I would never see it again, that twenty years of work was being wiped out. I locked the door." itrovnia




1.

Philippe Soupault, 1921.

2.

A Group of Paris Dadaists.

3.

Gertrude Stein

4.

Georges Braque, 1922.

5.

Pierre

Mac

and Alice B

Marie Laurencin. 1922.

7.

Paul

8.

James Joyce,

10.

1921.

F.luard. 1922.

1922.

11

Marcel Proust on his Deathbed, 1922.

Andre Derain

13.

Jacques Rigaut.

15.

Edna

Kikiten chapeau). 192S 6

35.

Wiener and Doucet, 1926.

36.

Kay Boyle,

at his

Drawing Board,

38.

Mary Butts.

Comtesse Anna de Noailles, 1927.

40.

Aldous Huxley,

1927.

c.

1928.

1922/3. 41.

Duchesse de Gramont,

42.

^4

late 1920s.

Group of surrealists at Tzara

's

House. 1930.

1923

c.

Vincent Millar,

Desnos,

1926.

c.

1923.

c.

Peret.

192^ 6

Ellis.

39.

43. Wassily St.

16. /tofoer?

17.

Havelock

34.

1925.

c.

yi.JoanMiro, 1926 (or early 1930s).

12.

Benjamin

American Society Lady,

33.

Gris, 1922.

14.

Stein. 1925/6.

32. Unidentified

Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes. 1922.

Juan

Gertrude

31. Sinclair Lewis, 1925.

Toklas, 1921.

Orlan, 1922

6.

9.

30.

c.

Kandinsky, 1930.

1923.

44

Andre Breton

45.

Marie-Berthe Aurenche, 1930

46.

Rene Char. 1932

47.

Meret Oppenheim at the Printers Wheel also known as

(solarized),

c.

1930.

1923.

c.

Margaret Anderson and Jane Heap, 1923/4.

18.

Georges Auric, 1923/4.

19.

Kiki de Montparnasse

and Friend,

c.

1924.

1

3.

(

Erotique

Voilee), 1933.

20. ErikSatie, 1924.

48.

Lady Diana Duff Cooper (so\avized),

1934.

21. Barbette, 1924.

49. £7sa

Schiapa rel

'I

i

(solarized). 1934.

22. Tristan Tzara, 1924. 50. Gisele Prassinos 23. Self-Portrait. 1924.

Louis Aragon

25.

Helene Perdriat,

26.

c.

c.

1924.

Raymond Queneau,

Solarized Profile (Valentine Hugo), 1935/6.

52.

Francis Picabia.

c.

1935.

1925. 53. £<&>, c. 1935.

29-

/tew Crewel

c.

54.

£eo« fl/wm, 1935/6.

55.

Miriam Hopkins,

56.

PaulEluard

1925.

Marcel Duchamp and Comte Raoul de Roussy de Sales Playing Chess in

Members of

51.

1925.

27. Janine. 1924/5. 28.

to

surrealist Group, 1934/5.

and Andre Breton,

24.

Reading her Poems

Man

Ray's Studio, 1925.

1936.

in Uniform, 1939.

the







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