Man Ray

Artist:  Emmanuel Radnitzky (Man Ray)

Birth-Death:  8/27/1890 – 11/18/1976

Movement:  Surrealism, Dadaism

Bio:  Born in South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1890, Emmanuel Radnitzky was the eldest son of Russian-Jewish immigrants.  In reaction to the anti-Semitism and ethnic discrimination in 1912, the Radnitzky family changed their last name to Ray.  Man Ray's father was a garment factory worker, and he also ran a small tailoring business out of his home.  Man Ray and his siblings worked for his father's business at a young age, which inspired much of his art later on (working with garments, patchwork, and tailoring materials).  After his graduation from high school, he decided to become an artist, declining a scholarship to study architecture.  Around 1916, Man Ray began involving himself with the Dada movement.  Dada was considered an "anti-art" movement, rejecting the prevailing standards of art and implementing anti-war politics.  In 1921, he moved to Paris, where he resided for nearly 20 years.  Back and forth between Paris and America, he spent about half of his life in each place (roughly forty years each).

            Similarly to the other artists profiled in this blog, Man Ray was raised in working class conditions – literally "rags" to "riches."  Like Mark Rothko, he was from a Russian-Jewish family of immigrants whom changed their names (Rothko was originally "Rothkowitz").  Man Ray actively challenged the "civilization" of art and its supposed sophistication by participating in the Dada movement.  Also like Rothko, he seemed to have been aware of his status in the art society.  He also rejected the concept of a status.

            The first video above talks about Man Ray's fascination and utilization of African art, and how it became fashionable because of his photographs.  The tone of the woman in the video, as well as the narrator, is much more formal than that of the second video.  Though the second video focuses more on African art than Man Ray, the woman is an artist who understands her society.  She mentions appropriation of art, and continues to note that curators, art historians, and writers are really the only ones concerned with it – not artists.  Artists are more concerned with their expression and work.  How does this idea of curators/historians/writers/etc. talking more about money than artists do tie into the concept of uncivilized people becoming famous in a civilized world?