Emmanuel Radnitzky (1890-1976) better known as Man Ray was an American modernist artist who made important contributions to Dadaist and surreal movements.
Ray was also known in the art world for his photography avant-garde and for his portraits.
His first solo exhibition took place at the Daniel Gallery in New York in 1915.
Together with Marcel Duchamp and Francis Picabia, he founded the New York Dada movement.
In 1918 he worked with airbrushes on photographic paper and in 1920, with Dreier and Duchamp, he founded the Société Anonyme, a company from which they managed exhibitions, publications, installations, films, conferences, among other avant-garde activities.
In 1921 he settled in Paris, the city in which he would develop most of his career.
A pioneer in abstract photography, he begins to experiment with his X-rays, abstract images obtained with exposed objects on a paper sensitive to light and then revealed.
His portraits are highly appreciated among Parisian society, which is why he became the photographer of cultural personalities.
In 1924 surrealism was separated from dadá. Ray participates in the first surreal exhibition at the Pierre gallery in Paris in 1925.
His surrealist sculptures followed the pattern created by Duchamp, known as Object to be DestroyedFrom this trend his work arises.
Surrealism also allowed him to capture portraits with double readings, fatal women, among others, in his nude photographs.
Conceptual art was a hallmark that characterized the work of Man Ray, who enjoyed portraying the irrational, incongruous, and absurd and seeking scandal to attract the viewer's attention.
