Thursday, November 5, 1998
Man Ray
ART: Man Ray’s photo images capture the abstraction of life with
a mesmerizing and even humorous touch
By Louise Chu
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
The image entrances you.
A hazy blend of spirals, shadows and edges sends the mind off,
fancying about a beautiful young woman spinning around
lightheartedly in a richly layered ball gown. Then you look into
her eyes  a deep, long gaze  until her soulful iris
comes into view, its complex workings processing the intrusive
light as she looks into the sky. And instantly, you’re taken beyond
the clouds, observing the planets’ heliocentric orbits chaotically
converging.
The possibilities are deliriously endless …
Man Ray’s 1922 untitled print is of nothing more than a strip of
paper, sloppily bent into a spiral curl. A photographic technique
that he popularized, called the Rayograph, explains the muddled
image.
"The experiment lies with the spectator and his willingness to
accept what his eye conveys to him," Man Ray wrote in 1945. "The
success of the experiment is in proportion to the desire to distort
and enjoy."
The American painter, filmmaker and sculptor is best known as a
photographer. Man Ray, born Emmanuel Radnitsky, emerged in the
1920s as an innovative young artist with a career to span until his
death in 1976.
An exhibit of over 100 of his pieces is currently showing at the
J. Paul Getty Museum. Aptly titled "A Practical Dreamer: The
Photographs of Man Ray," the collection highlights his photographic
works from the 1920s to 1940s . The images were created in New
York, Paris and Los Angeles, where he lived during different
periods of his life.
A contributor to the Dada and Surrealist movement, Man Ray
photographed a variety of images, from portraits to abstract
pieces. His subjects were intriguing in themselves, but it was
often his treatment of the photos that drew people’s attention.
The artist took a familiar medium and experimented with a number
of techniques  one for which he is most famous for is the
Rayograph. A style developed as far back as the 1830s, the process
has objects on chemically treated photographic paper. The sheet is
then exposed to light, capturing the object’s silhouette.
Man Ray also utilized the Sabattier effect, also called
solarization, which created a darkly ethereal outline around the
subject. He reserved this technique for intricate portrait studies,
often of famous people.
An unabashed experimentalist, Man Ray often blurred the
boundaries of photography and abstract art. In a signature piece,
"Le Violon d’Ingres," he features his then-lover Kiki as a Turkish
bather. Her head wrapped in an exotic turban and her nude,
hourglass back facing the camera, the artist superimposed "F" holes
on the print, inspiring comparisons of the female body to a musical
instrument.
"(Le Violon d’Ingres) is a very classical, traditional nude in a
lot of ways, but he’s got to paint these things on it (and) make it
into something else, make a joke in a way," says Katherine Ware,
assistant curator of photographs at the Getty. "(The title) is
really a French idiom meaning ‘hobby’ … His hobby is Kiki, or his
hobby is photography, and there are all these layers of
meaning.
"He’s always goofing around, joking around, playing with your
mind," she continues. "People who miss that are really missing a
lot because he’s trying to get you to think, and humor is one way
to do that."
But Man Ray found little humor in his stifling reputation in the
States as an extraordinary fashion photographer (he found broader
success overseas). His only fashion print in the exhibit is
"Augustabernard Gown." The layout displays his innovative vision of
the fashion world, ignoring the model’s face in favor of
accentuating the smooth line of the elegant, designer gown.
Constantly reinventing himself as well as his style, Man Ray was
extremely aware of "formulating his own image," Ware says.
He took many self-portraits throughout his career, each
gradually documenting his evolution as an artist. From an early
self-image  an assemblage  to one showing him as a
pained "artiste," he ironically used his camera to portray his
love-hate relationship with photography.
"He seemed to really favor his paintings," Ware says. "He
considered himself an artist with a capital ‘A’."
Despite his conflicting feelings toward the medium, Man Ray left
an indelible impression on the world he captured in ways that
offered a new perspective on reality.
He once said, "I have freed myself from the sticky medium of
paint and am working directly with light itself."
Perhaps Man Ray is better known as simply an artist.
ART: "A Practical Dreamer: The Photographs of Man Ray" runs
through Jan. 17 at the J. Paul Getty Museum. For more information,
call (310) 440-7300.
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