Something interesting for those with passion for artistic photography – Man Ray (1890 -1976) is a protagonist of a current exhibition at Mode Museum in Antwerp. https://www.momu.be/en/ A very versatile artist, his truest aspiration was to become a painter and although he received relevant education in art, he is best remembered as a photographer. A fashion photographer most of all. That is why the curator, Romy Cockx focused on Man Ray’s portrait and fashion photography and the time Ray spent in Paris from 1921 till 1940.
The exhibition opens with the installation “Obstruction”, consisting of 64 hangers, mathematically arranged to obstruct space. Its message becomes clear thanks to the information about the artist’s family. He was born in Philadelphia as Emmanuel Radnitzky, son of a seamstress from Minsk (currently Belarus) and a tailor from Kiev, Ukraine. Although he never admitted taking inspiration from his parents’ profession, related objects like pins, hangers, sewing machines and mannequins frequently appear in his art.
Ray’s career in photography started when he decided to catalogue his own artwork. When he went to Paris in 1921, photography became his source of income. He first documented artworks of others and once his talent was spotted, he began working on portraits photos of the most prominent artists and high society of the era – celebrities, using more contemporary term.
Bottom left: Peggy Guggenheim in a Poiret dress, 1924, other models unknown
Paris of the interwar period was a unique place, eagerly and often exploited by cinematographers and writers as a backdrop for eccentric, loud romances and exhilarating social life, involving intellectuals, philosophers, artists, and beautiful models of the time. And here we explore not a fictional story, but the real life of an artist who rubbed shoulders with Picasso, Duchamp, Ernst, Gugenheim, Jean Cocteau, Paul Poiret, and took perhaps the most famous photo of Coco Chanel.
Probably the most recognizable photo of Coco Chanel, 1935
Less known but far more intimate photos of Chanel, 1935
The story of his acquaintance with the Parisian monde unfolds in the first chapter of the exhibition, where the roaring twenties are recalled with Ray’s black and white photography, beautiful samples of 1920s gowns by Poiret, Severin, Molyneux or Timmermans and spiced up with the account of Man Ray’s affair with Alice Prin, better known as Kiki De Montparnasse, a very popular model for many artists.
Luckily for Ray, demand for quality fashion photography was on the rise. New ideas were communicated mainly in magazines and although producing and publishing photography was more expensive than fashion drawings, the editors gradually switched to photos as they were more effective means of advertising. In 1924 Ray began working for Vogue, hence his associations with Chanel and her bitter rival, Elsa Schiaparelli. Not only did he work on photoshoots of their fashion collections but produced portrait photos of both ladies. Ten years later he started working on commission for Harper’s Bazaar, an influential American fashion magazine for which he produced pictures using very innovative approach and techniques such as solarization, photomontage and multiple exposure. Interesting samples to be seen as you proceed through the exhibition. And since having only black and white photos would not make it very exciting, also here is the story completed with real life dresses and gowns by Schiaparelli, Nina Ricci, Madeleine Vionnet and others, illustrating changes in fashion between the two decades.
Vionnet’s Empire Line dress, in Harper’s Bazaar, April 1937 and in real life
Towards the end of 1920s fashion designers took interest in new trends in art, especially Surrealism, Dadaism and Cubism. The most famous are Elsa Schiaparelli’s outfits with a surrealist twist, but references to art can also be found in other collections such as the one by Norine, a popular Belgian fashion house.
Elsa Schiaparelli, on the right leaning against mannequin hand
Left: Full Venus Eclipse, c.1930; right: Face Mirror Lamp, 1932
At approximately the same time French avant-garde artists developed an interested in African art. On the wave of this interest, one of the most recognizable works of Man Ray was created. In 1928 he photographed the already mentioned Kiki embracing an ebony African mask. It was published in 1928 in Art et Decoration magazine and titled Black and White.
This very photograph inspired Jean Baptiste Mondino to create a perfume advert photo for Jean Paul Gaultier in 1993, a real tribute to Man Ray to be openly quoted by another photographer 85 years later! Mondino’s photo closes the exhibition.
Man Ray worked at a time when visual communication was rapidly gaining importance, and commercial photography was intended to sell not only the product, but a certain lifestyle along with it, which was a novelty at the time. It is not an exaggeration to say that Ray created the means of this communication and set standards that are still relevant today.
The Antwerp exhibition is interesting for several reasons. It tells the story of the artist’s life and allows to taste the atmosphere of the world he lived in. It often refers to fashion, as it was an important theme of his work. It also shows how the past inspires the present, and how artistic concepts do not appear in the mundane, that everything is interconnected. I recommend the exhibition to everyone interested in photography, advertising, visual communication and, of course, fashion history. Enjoy!
Lanvin’s dress photographed by Man Ray for June 1925 edition of Vogue