Self Portrait by Man Ray (Art Ebiography).pdf

pdf / English / 428 pages / 65 MB / 1963

Born in Philadelphia in 1890, the sculptor, painter, film-maker and photographer Emmanuel Radnitzky is better known by the name he used from about the age of 15: Man Ray. This evocative autobiography was first published in 1963. Today, Ray is chiefly remembered for his photography, particularly the strikingly beautiful nudes and portraits of the many women in his life, such as Lee Miller. But his first and enduring love was painting. He began as a young boy, pilfering paints from a local shop: "Fagin would have been proud of me." In New York, he became friends with gallery owner and photographer Alfred Stieglitz. Ray never "shared the contempt shown by other painters for photography". The medium enthralled him and provided a means of supporting his painting. He photographed many famous artists and authors, including Gertrude Stein and James Joyce, first in Manhattan and then from 1921 in Paris. He admits: "I am not a historian," and this memoir is impressionistic, weak on chronology and sometimes self-serving. But it offers a wonderfully intimate portrait of a life dedicated to art.