Man Ray. Magie

Man Ray (Philadelphia 1890 – Paris 1976) is not only known as one of the most colourful and productive personalities between Dadaism and Surrealism, but also as one of the greatest artists of the 20^th century. He has made an art out of photography and placed it on a par with painting and sculpture. He loves play and disorientation. He experiments with all techniques he has available. He calls himself a “practical dreamer”, and he is a photographer, painter, producer, illustrator, graphic artist, and sculptor, all at once. “I paint what cannot be photographed, that which comes from the imagination or from dreams, or from an unconscious drive. I photograph the things that I do not wish to paint, the things which already have an existence.”

It is women that fascinate him. Their powerful bodies open the gates of the subconscious, the universe, and they lead the artist into an unregimented dream world. “Eros c’est la vie.”

He has captured the atmosphere of the Paris and New York of the Twenties to Forties on his photographs and has invented techniques such as solarisation and the Rayogram (cameraless photograph).

The exhibition displays 85 photographs, 10 objects, and the films by Man Ray. The selected photographs reflect some of the major topics of the artist: self-portraits, nude photographs, the famous series “La mode au Congo”, portraits of his well-known models Meret Oppenheim and Lee Miller, as well as some of his as yet unpublished works.

In co-operation with the Giò Marconi foundation, Milan

Catalogue: man ray magie, Damiani editore, Bologna ISBN 88-89431-33-4, euros 35.-