Not Indifferent: Man Ray
In 1809, Emmanuel Radnitzky, aka Man Ray, was born in Philadelphia. During his life, he would become one of the most influential photographers of the twentieth century. Although best known for his avant-garde black and white photography, he was active in many visual arts, including sculpture, performance art, and especially painting. Like many avant-garde artists, he received little recognition or appreciation for his work during his life.
Relocating to New York in 1912, Man Ray began to focus on trying to show movement in painting. As he continued to explore experimental art, he gradually moved away from painting. At first he merely experimented with different materials-for example, his 1919 painting “Aerograph” was done with airbrush on glass-he eventually left the canvas altogether and moved into experimental art in the sculpture and photography.
Man Ray started using “readymade” art, which consisted of found objects presented as works of sculpture. In 1920, he assisted fellow avant-garde artist Marcel Duchamp designing and building one of the first pieces of kinetic art in which glass plates were rotated by a motor. In the same year, Man Ray, Duchamp, and Katherine Dreier opened the Socit Anonyme, becoming the first museum of modern art in the United States.
Man Ray championed photography as a means of bypassing the static nature of painting. After moving to the artistic community of Montparnasse, Paris, he spent the next 20 years redefining the art of photography. He juxtaposed objects, subjects, backgrounds, and lighting techniques, altering the meaning and message of his images. He developed new techniques of using photograms, and began to drifting towards directed several short avant-garde experimental films.
In 1976, as per his wish, Man Ray was interred at the Montparnasse Cemetery. His tombstone bears the inscription “Unconcerned, but not indifferent.” ARTnews Magazine rated him among the 25 most influential artists of the 20th century, in large part because of his fearless explorations in painting, sculpture, black and white photography, and film.
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