Steidlville

Man Ray

Man Ray was born Emmanuel Radnitzky in Philadelphia, 1890. He spent most of his working life in Paris, and he was a significant contributor to both Dadaism and Surrealism, though his ties to both were informal. Best known as a photographer, Man Ray produced major works in a variety of media and considered himself a painter above all. Man Ray died in 1976. While appreciation for his work beyond photography was slow in coming during his lifetime, especially in the United States, Man Ray’s reputation has grown steadily in the decades since. In 1999, ArtNews magazine named Man Ray one of the 25 most influential artists of the 20th century, citing his groundbreaking photography as well as “his explorations of film, painting, sculpture, collage, assemblage, and prototypes of what would eventually be called performance art and conceptual art.”