Conversion to Modernism : the early work of Man Ray / Francis M. Naumann ; with an essay by Gail Stavitsky.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Naumann, Francis M.

Contributor:

Montclair Art Museum.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Man Ray, 1890-1976--Exhibitions.

Man Ray.

Man Ray, 1890-1976.

Genre:

Exhibition catalogs.

Physical Description:

xx, 261 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 28 cm

Place of Publication:

New Brunswick, N.J. : Rutgers University Press : Montclair Art Museum, [2003]

Summary:

Man Ray (1890-1976) has long been considered one of the most versatile and innovative artists of the twentieth century. As a painter, writer, sculptor, photographer, and filmmaker, he is best known for his intimate association with the French Surrealist group in Paris during the 1920s and 1930s, particularly for his highly inventive and unconventional photographic images. These remarkable accomplishments, however, have tended to overshadow the importance of his earlier work -- significant not only for comprehending Man Ray's future artistic development, but also for fleshing out our understanding of the visual arts in America during one of the most important and crucial phases of modernism's evolution. Conversion to Modernism highlights Man Ray's production from 1907 to 1917. This book is the first comprehensive, fully illustrated work to examine this artist's seminal years, beginning with his high school years in Brooklyn, his studies at the Art Students League and the National Academy of Design in New York, and the time he spent in life drawing classes at the more progressive Ferrer Center.

From 1913 to 1915, Man Ray lived in a small artists' colony in Grantwood, New Jersey. It was here, studying with Samuel Halpert (a former student of Matisse), that he began to become the artist we know today. Throughout this period, Man Ray's work developed methodically, in a gradual but certain evolution to abstraction. This progression culminated in 1916 with the publication of a remarkably early and important formalist tract, wherein the flat planar surface is established as a common vehicle of expression for all the arts: music, literature, dance, architecture, sculpture, and painting. The last section of the book includes recently discovered photographs and other works influenced by the emergent Dada movement. Here is Man Ray in recognizable form just before he leaves the country for France in 1921.

Contents:

1 Youth and First Artistic Impulses (1907-1911) 3

2 The Ferrer Center: Formulating the Aesthetics of Anarchism (1912) 17

3 Stieglitz, Ridgefield, and the Assimilation of a Modernist Aesthetic (1913: Part 1) 30

4 New Words for New Images: Adon Lacroix and the Modern Poetry Movement (1913: Part 2) 50

5 Approaching the Art of Painting in Two Dimensions: The Paintings, Drawings, and Watercolors of 1914 73

6 The Art of Painting in Two Dimensions, Part 1: The Paintings, Drawings, and Watercolors of 1915 111

7 The Art of Painting in Two Dimensions, Part 2: The Paintings, Drawings, Watercolors, and Collages of 1916 145

8 The Art of Painting in More than Two Dimensions: The Paintings, Drawings, Watercolors, Cliche Verre, and Airbrush Compositions of 1917-1919 175

9 From an Art in Two Dimensions to the Higher Dimension of Ideas (1920-1921) 208

Afterword: Artists and Art Colonies of Ridgefield, New Jersey / Gail Stavitsky 217

A. A Primer of the New Art of Two Dimensions 225

B. Texts for The Revolving Doors 226

C. Card File 228.

Notes:

Itinerary, Montclair Art Museum, New Jersey, Feb. 16, 2003-Aug. 3, 2003 and others.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [251]-255) and index.

ISBN:

0813531470

0813531489

OCLC:

48876692