Noire et Blanche is a photograph taken by Man Ray in 1926. It shows Kiki of Montparnasse, Man Ray’s muse and companion. Her eyes are closed and her head is lying on a table. With her left hand she is holding, next to her face and perpendicular to the table, an African mask. This photograph was published for the first time on 1st May 1926 in the Parisian version of Vogue.
Since the ‘cubist discovery’ of African art, until then scorned by the West, it was common to see artists from the first half of the 20th century to repeat representations of African masks in their works. Following the example of other modern artists, Man Ray cited African art as a model at odds with the traditional representation acknowledged in the West. The photographer went further and provocatively placed two opposing forms of beauty in parallel during a very conservative period.
YellowKorner and l'ADAGP are delighted to publish a photograph by Man Ray. Due to its historic nature, this photograph is not numbered or offered as a limited edition.
Photographic reproduction / Man Ray - Noire et Blanche, 1926.
© Man Ray Trust / ADAGP, BI, Paris 2010
Über den Künstler :
Man
Ray
Emmanuel Rudzitsky, the future Man Ray, was born in 1890 in Philadelphia
(U.S.A). After his secondary education, he studied freehand drawing and
industrial design. In 1912, Man Ray began his professional career as an
illustrator in advertising. Whilst preparing for his first painting
exhibition in 1915, Man Ray was not satisfied with the professional
reproductions presented to him. He therefore launched himself into
photography in order to satisfy his own standards of criteria and soon
became a master photographer.
"I started off as a painter. By
photographing my canvases, I discovered an interest in reproducing them
in black and white. One day, I decided to destroy the original and only
keep the reproduction. From then on, I never stopped believing that
painting is a dated form of expression, and that photography will
replace it when the public is educated visually …For me, one thing is
certain, I need to experiment in one way or another. Photography enables
me to do so, in a simpler and faster way than painting."
For Man Ray, the painter with modernist tendencies, photography became
the means of expression of modern art par excellence. The technique
replaced the notions of representation for the artist and the latter,
free from these contingencies, was able to explore new means of
expression. He identified with the American branch of the Dada movement
but from 1920 concluded that Dada cannot live in New York. It was in
1921, that he came to Paris and from the evening of his arrival, Marcel
Duchamp introduced the photographer to the surrealist artists Aragon,
Breton, Eluard… In 1925, Man Ray participated with Arp, Ernst, Masson,
Miro and Picasso in the first surrealist exhibition. For 30 years, when
he was based in Montparnasse, the artist revolutionised photographic
art. He passed away in Paris in 1976. Buried at the Montparnasse
cemetery, the epitaph Unconcerned, but not indifferent is written on his
grave.