Under the canopy of girls

Great Man Ray and his model

In theowers to them. A.S. Pushkin is an exhibition of the most famous photographer of the twentieth century Man Ray. In Moscow, the original photos of the master show

Man Ray (left) with Kiki model behind work on the famous picture "Violin Engra"

More than a hundred pictures from the collections of the National Portrait Gallery in London, the Georges Pompidu Center in Paris, the Jerusalem Museum of Israel, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Man Ray Trust and private collections entered the exposition of Man Ray. Portraits ". He entered the history of the twentieth century as a consistent Dadaist, a surrealist, an experimenter in the field of photography and cinema, in the end, even as a painter. But his most famous works are portraits of famous characters in the twentieth century: Picasso, Jean Cocteau, Salvador Dali, Elyuar fields ...

Man Ray himself did not only inspire such a glory, but in the end even began to burden. When he arrived in America in the 40th year, he found that he was well known as a photographer, but completely unknown as an artist. It was so angry that from that time he practically stopped taking pictures. You can understand, given his attitude to the photograph. “To create is divine work, copying is human,” Man Ray believed. That is why in photography he always strove for experiments that would take pictures of works of art. And that is true, accidentally becoming a photographer, Man Ray considered himself himself an artist all his life, and nothing more.

Dadaist and surrealist

His present name Emmanuel Rodnitsky. His parents are Jewish emigrants from the Coven province of Russia (Kovno - the former name of Kaunas). A married couple left for America, where in 1890 a boy was born to them. Fearing anti -Semitic manifestations, which were then quite common in America, parents changed their surname to purely American - Ray. Well, already at twenty -two years, their son, whom friends were abbreviated as Manny, took the name man. So Man Ray appeared.

Salvador Dali and Gala, 1936

He became interested in painting early, attended galleries of contemporary art, experimented in cubism, abstraction, in 1915 he already had the first exhibition, then he met Marcel Duchain and Francis Picabia and became the most active participant in the Dadaism movement in New York. The Dadaists advocated the consistent destruction of any aesthetics, proclaiming irrationality, denial of canons and traditions. This direction later merged with surrealism, and Man Ray became a consistent surrealist. Yes, so active that the founder of surrealism, writer Andre Breton called him and artist Max Ernst the first real surrealists.

Paris note

In 1921, Man Ray moved to Paris and instantly fit into a bohemian life. He earned a photograph, while continuing to draw. For this period, all his most famous photographs and experiments with a film occur. He strongly did not want to just fix the surrounding reality. He invented the reiography technique (name from his surname) - these are photographs taken without the help of the camera, right on the photo paper. He put different items on it and then stirred the paper. Today, the works done at that time are at auctions up to $ 350 thousand. He experimented with the movement of the camera, smeared the lens with gel, achieving unexpected effects. Many pictures are taken using the effect of solarization - the negative, when manifested, is overturned and the picture in which the dark and light change places, but not completely, but partially. I took a few pictures on one photographic plate ...

"

Girls gave him the work of the sensuality, the absence of which he hid behind abstractions

"

But Paris would not be Paris if he had not twisted a young man in a whirlwind of erotic hobbies. Probably, Man Ray can safely be called an erotomanian. In any case, his photographs of naked beauties are considered one of the best in this genre. The girls gave him the work of the sensuality that he had not enough for this and the absence of which he hid behind art abstractions. One of the main women of his life was Kiki with Monparnas - the famous model, whose portraits were made by almost all the great artists of Paris from Picasso to Modigliani.

Kiki with Monparnasa, 1928

In bed with a camera

Katrin Denev, 1968

“Once I sat in a cafe and chatted with (artist) Maria Vasilyeva,” Ray recalls. “On the contrary, two girls were sitting ... The one that is more painful, waved her hand to Mary, who informed me that it was Kiki's popular model ... Maria invited Kiki and her friend at our table.” All of them went to the cinema, where Ray "almost did not look at the screen and looked for Kiki's hand in the dark." He was delighted when Kiki agreed to pose to him: “Kiki undressed behind the screen in the corner and went out, modestly hiding behind her hand, exactly identifying the picture of the Engra“ Source ”. Looking around her from head to toe, I could not find a single drawback ... The next day Kiki came again, and I showed her pictures. She was accordingly impressed ... Then she undressed while I was sitting on the edge of the bed with a camera in her hands. She came out from behind the screen, and I gave her a sign to approach and sit next to me. I hugged her, and she answered the same ... On that day, not a single photo was taken. "

In turn, Kiki described their relationship like this: “I met an American, the best photographer ... He takes pictures of people in our room, and in the evening I lie, stretching out on the bed while he works in the dark. I can see his face, lit by a red bulb: he looks like a devil in the flesh, and I, like needles, cannot wait for him to finish ... I am delighted with his work - he takes very beautiful photos. I must tell you that in this simple and small hotel room, the whole aristocracy and the most famous people for today have been released. ”

“I draw what cannot be photographed. I photograph what I don't want to draw "

"

Kiki was in love with Man Ray (“You are my beloved, whom I adore, who makes me die of pleasure, grief and love”), but he perceived her nothing more than a model and sometimes answered quite rudely: “What is love, idiot? We do not love, we are getting off. ” Almost all MAN Ray models of these years became his mistresses, Kiki was jealous and even once left him to America. Eight years later, they broke up. Their last joint project was a series of erotic photographs under the name “Four Seasons of the Year”, in which Man Ray captured himself, making love with Kiki. These pictures were included in the book “1929”.

Being of things

Ban, 1920

After Kiki, Man Ray began to live with his assistant Lee Miller. At first, she only helped him in the filming, printed pictures, but later she seriously took up photography. Its peak was the work of a military photojournalist: many of its pictures of those years - the landing of allies, the liberation of Paris, the liberation of prisoners of Dachau and Buchenwald - a photographer classic. The last muse of Man Ray was the model and dancer Juliet Brownner, whom he met in 1940 and at which he married six years later.

After the war, Man Ray practically did not engage in photography, illustrating his own statement with his own life: “I draw what cannot be photographed, what comes from imagination, dreams or subconscious. I photograph what I do not want to draw: things that already have their own being. ”

He painted, was engaged in sculpture. In 1999, he was named among the 25 most influential artists of the twentieth century. Ray died in 1976 in his studio in Paris at the age of 86. A rather controversial epitaph was knocked out on the grave: "impartial, but not indifferent." When his wife died in 1991, she was buried in the same grave with the epitaph "again". Women have always loved him more than him.

Photos: the press service of the museum