Man Ray: Prophet of the Avant-Garde

This well-edited work's text is written by Neil Baldwin, author of a definitive biography, MAN RAY: American ARTIST, and is sturdily narrated by Stockard Channing as it depicts, in a generally linear manner, many aspects of a versatile and influential Surrealist's career, a man who refused to be ignored, born Emmanuel Radnitzky in 1890 Philadelphia, growing up in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, and dying in 1976 in the Left Bank Parisian district of Montparnasse, a long life during which he was responsible for disturbing a sense of order held by many high-minded aesthetes. This documentary stresses that the days of his youth were filled with the sap of rebellion. Following his early fascination with Emma Goldman's brand of anarchism (Ray contributed illustrated covers for her periodical Mother Earth), the callow artist took groundbreaking photographer Alfred Stieglitz as mentor, a significant early influence, but after the notorious 1913 Armory Show astonished New York City's followers of trends in art, Ray adopted Cubism and Expressionism as métiers until, three years after, Tristan Tzara's Dada movement found in him an enthusiastic disciple, and one who began a lifelong friendship at that time with fellow Dada acolyte Marcel Duchamp, creator of NUDE DESCENDING A STAIRCASE, No. 2 that became the cardinal cause célèbre at the Armory. A failed marriage and a shortage of monetary reward from his art drove Ray from New York and to Paris where Dadaism was being blended into Surrealism, and where Kiki of Montparnasse became his essential muse. It is from this period that viewers are shown a remarkable photograph of Marcel Proust upon his death bed, as well as wonderful examples of "Rayogrammes", works made by a process wherein no camera is utilized, subjects instead being placed directly upon photographic paper and then developed. This documentary's noteworthy reproductions of several of these pieces are representative of the signal care all round that marks the American Masters (WNET) production. We hear from the absorbing narration a mention that Ray was a "subsidized pet of French nobility", but Paris was also accountable for the presence of the striking Lee Miller in his existence, this former model of photographer Edward Steichen having a lasting impact upon the natively talented Ray, whose best efforts followed her appearance and were stimulated by Miller's fashion background, he in turn sharply altering the state of fashion photography. From approximately this time a viewer sees his "Obstruction", an exhibited entanglement of clothes hangers that anticipate the mobiles of Alexander Calder. Due to war in Europe, Ray left Paris in 1940, soon settling in Hollywood at an apartment on Vine Street near Sunset Boulevard where he resided for 20 years before returning to his beloved Montparnasse for his last decade and one half. When asked if he is ahead of his time he replies "I'm of my time; it's the others who are behind the times" (sic). Man Ray became a photographer as means of achieving a regular income, and while his preference for artistic endeavour was always painting, his unique photographic compositions are his most valued legacy to the world. Oddly, this creative individual's pronouncements are for the most part banal, his most telling statement in this film being "I wanted to be accepted, not understood". An excellent DVD version includes candid film footage made by Man Ray and a hitherto unseen videotaped interview of him that was located within a storage area of the Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam, and also archival drawings from his school days that had remained unseen for 90 years.

This is a superb film, done with love and care by an inspired producer and director, Mel Stuart. It was one of the American Masters series for WNET and the Educational Broadcasting Commission, but the DVD has not been available for many years, so it took a long time to find one and see it. The film is so intensively researched that many photos are reproduced which are unfamiliar, and possibly for the first time for some of them. There are wonderful interviews with Man Ray himself, who was very voluble and even has traces of his original Brooklyn accent ("woik' for 'work', for instance) despite spending most of his life in Paris. Every time we visit Paris, we stay near Man Ray's little studio on Rue Ferou, and we always imagine him walking along that little street. So it was a real shock to see film of him doing just that, like a vision oft imagined which has come suddenly to life. There he was, there he really was, doing just what we had seen in our minds. I have read Man Ray's autobiography so I am aware that his period of exile in California is perhaps insufficiently covered, but it was his most boring time, as he was such a fish out of water there and never got any recognition and was more or less miserable. But what is there to do amongst a city full of phoneys when you have spent so long in a city full of real people? One especially good thing about the film is that it emphasises his art training in Brooklyn, when he was still Emmanuel Radnitsky, for in his book he specially stresses that he was taught how to draw properly there. The irony, which most people do not realize, is that you cannot be an effective avant-garde artist if you have never been taught how to draw. Man Ray, Picasso, and all the others of that time knew how to draw before they created modernism. This is stressed so powerfully by Man Ray, and we see some examples in this film of just that. His relationships with Kiki de Montparnasse and Lee Miller are described at length, his rayograms are explained, and his last wife is interviewed because she was still alive. His niece is also interviewed. Not all footage of Man Ray has been used, however, for he was filmed by the French and I recall their footage of the visits of his friend Tristan Tzara to play chess with him in his little studio. (They were both chess addicts.) My wife and I have a small work of Man Ray's art, some of his signed books, and a few of his original photographs. What a guy (but not a goy)! Everyone should know about him. Come on Everyone, wake up and start knowing about Man Ray, you might learn something. And this film is the place to start. It is one hour long, and was aired April 9, 1997, as Part 3 of Series 11 of American Masters. Try and find it and don't give up, it's worth it.