Man Ray
Alphabets for Adults
1990
Facsimile of 41 china drawings in a box
29 x 22 cm
Edition 134 of 1000

Man Ray (1890-1976), born Emmanuel Radnitzky in Philadelphia from a family of Russian immigrants, was one of the main exponents of international Dadaism who made himself known and appreciated for his surrealist photographs and for his contribution to avant-garde cinema. He spent most of his career in Paris. Starting as a painter, soon Man Ray abandoned conventional painting to involve himself with Dada, a radical anti-art movement. He was responsible for several technical innovations in modern art, filmmaking, and photography. These included his version of the photograms to produce surrealist images he called "Rayograms", and solarisation. His 1923 experimental film Le Retour à la raison was the first 'cine-rayograph', a motion picture made without the use of a camera.