“Alias Man Ray: The Art of Reinvention” at the Jewish Museum

By: Lindsay Casale

  

   

 
Man Ray, Le Violon d’Ingres, silver gelatin print, 1924. Courtesy of the Jewish Museum.

  The Jewish Museum has mounted a special exhibition running November 15, 2009 to March 14, 2010, titled “Alias Man Ray: The Art of Reinvention.” The show, which spans the entire first floor of the museum, focuses on the myriad art forms of Man Ray, the famed artist best known for his experimentation with the photographic process, most notably through his creation of the “Rayograph.” The exhibition demonstrates the many influences on Man Ray’s career from start to finish, including great examples of New York and Paris Dada, fashion photography, and his late Surrealist work. Man Ray, a Russian Jewish immigrant who changed his name from Emmanuel Radnitzky, was on a quest for non-identity, both artistically and personally. Despite a broad treatment of Ray’s work formally, The Jewish Museum seeks to highlight a more cultural perspective, displaying Ray’s work chronologically in order to demonstrate his life-long attempt to remove himself from his socio-cultural identity.

  “Alias Man Ray” follows a chronological path divided into four categories; “Formative Years,” “Dada in New York,”  “Paris” and “Hollywood.” Conveniently, each section has its own partitioned, yet easily accessible space, denoting the transition between each artistic and personal step Man Ray took toward “reinvention.” Most impressive is the handling of multiple media in one space. Man Ray’s career consisted of various forms of artistic expression, including textiles, painting, photography, written word, ready-mades, sculpture, and film. Far too often Man Ray is presented as a solely photographic artist, but the Jewish Museum does an excellent job showing his proficiency and innovation in each specific medium.

Within this exhibition’s exhaustive catalogue of Man Ray’s work, there are a few particular highlights that bear mentioning. First is Man Ray’s captivating early painting, The Rope Dancer Accompanies Herself with Her Shadows, 1915-16, exhibited under the category “Formative Years.” This painting presents an artist dabbling in self-expression, still borrowing from his forebears but clearly on the verge of breaking into a new artistic identity. The careful, yet whimsical lines in the painting seem to suggest an exploration, a sentiment that makes sense in that moment of Man Ray’s career. The painting exemplifies the exciting opportunity exhibitions such as this one often present: the opportunity to be, in a sense, voyeurs, gazing into the intimate process that helped create the oeuvre with which we have become so familiar.

 

 
Man Ray, The Rope Dance Accompanies Herself with Her Shadows, oil on canvas, 1915-16. Courtesy of the Jewish Museum.

“Alias Man Ray: The Art of Reinvention” also contains excellent examples of the short-lived reincarnation of Dada in New York. Man Ray was a pivotal player in the decidedly anti-establishment New York Dada movement, along with Marcel Duchamp, Alfred Stieglitz, and Francis Picabia, among others. Though the show does not provide as many physical works from this period in Ray’s career, the description of that time is the perfect transition into the most substantial part of Man Ray’s life, artistically and personally: his time in Paris. Playing off the theme of cultural identity, this exhibition stresses the fact that while in Paris, Man Ray was welcomed into many movements and social circles, but chose quite deliberately to be an “outsider.” Works from the various movements in which he was involved at the time are on view, including examples of fashion photography, portraits, a sardonically humorous metronome, and perhaps one of Ray’s most iconic photographic works, Le Violin d’Ingres, 1924.

  Ultimately, “Alias Man Ray” does an excellent job of posing questions about the imposing role cultural identity plays in the creative process. Chiefly, this exhibition seems to ask if the artist can produce something entirely separate from his or her ethnicity, identity, or upbringing. One gets the sense that in mounting this exhibit, The Jewish Museum seeks to say “no,” though a definitive conclusion is not forced upon the viewer. Despite Man Ray’s many attempts to attach himself to non-attachment, his history and his cultural identity are ever present in his work.

 

Alias Man Ray: The Art of Reinvention at the Jewish Museum runs through   

March 14^th

 

The Jewish Museum

1109 5^th Avenue at 92^nd Street

Take the 4,5 or 6 train to 86^th Street

Museum Hours: Sun, M and Tues, 11- 5:45; Thurs, 11- 8; F, 11 – 4; Sat, 11-5:45

Museum Website: http://www.thejewishmuseum.org

Comments

[mjubin]

Nice interview - last few shows at the Jewish Museum have been excellent - well worth just wandering up a few blocks on museum mile when at the met or the gugg to make it here!

[MNelson]

I'm really excited to see this show now! It's nice to have such a complete review since I never seem to make it to the Jewish museum- it's just not on my museum radar for some reason. But after reading this I definitely want to check it out.