Man Ray: The Paris Years

Man Ray's interwar portraiture captured the essence of Paris's international avant-garde during the Les Années folles. The photographs featured cultural luminaries such as Berenice Abbott, André Breton, Jean Cocteau, Marcel Duchamp, Ernest Hemingway, Miriam Hopkins, Aldous Huxley, James Joyce, Lee Miller, Méret Oppenheim, Pablo Picasso, Alice Prin (Kiki de Montparnasse), Elsa Schiaparelli, Erik Satie, and Gertrude Stein.

Format: Hardback
Length: 320 pages
Publication date: 07 January 2022
Publisher: Yale University Press

Shortly after his arrival in Paris in July 1921, Man Ray (1890–1976)—the pseudonym of Emmanuel Radnitzky—embarked on a sustained campaign to document the city's international avant-garde in a series of remarkable portraits that established his reputation as one of the leading photographers of his era. Man Rays subjects included cultural luminaries such as Berenice Abbott, André Breton, Jean Cocteau, Marcel Duchamp, Ernest Hemingway, Miriam Hopkins, Aldous Huxley, James Joyce, Lee Miller, Méret Oppenheim, Pablo Picasso, Alice Prin (Kiki de Montparnasse), Elsa Schiaparelli, Erik Satie, and Gertrude Stein. As this lavishly illustrated publication demonstrates, Man Rays portraits went beyond recording the mere outward appearance of the person depicted and aimed instead to capture the essence of his sitters as creative individuals, as well as the collective nature and character of Les Années folles (the crazy years) of Paris between the two world wars, when the city became famous the world over as a powerful and evocative symbol of artistic freedom and daring experimentation.

Distributed for the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

Exhibition Schedule:

Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond
(October 30, 2021–February 21, 2022)

Weight: 2188g
Dimension: 255 x 316 x 40 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780300260847