Kirk Gittings
30-Jan-2010, 21:19
UNM Art Museum to premiere ‘Man Ray, African Art and the Modernist Lens’
Art_Noire_BlanchePhiladelphia-born, Parisian artist Man Ray (1890–1976) has been recognized as one of the most important artists of the 20th century. He translated the early modernist taste for African art into photographs in the 1920s and ’30s. About 60 of these, many never before exhibited, along with more than 40 rare photographs by his contemporaries, Cecil Beaton, Walker Evans and Alfred Stieglitz, will appear side-by-side with some of the African objects featured in the images.
The exhibition, “Man Ray, African Art and the Modernist Lens,” reveals photography’s complex engagement with African art by exploring it in the context of American modernism and the Harlem Renaissance, surrealism and the worlds of high fashion and popular culture.
The UNM Art Museum is the only venue west of the Potomac River to present this ground-breaking exhibition, on view Feb. 6-May 30. The opening reception will feature jazz by Albuquerque’s Michael Anthony Trio on Friday, Feb. 5, 5-7 p.m. It is free to the public.
“Man Ray, African Art and the Modernist Lens” presents images and objects together to show how lighting, camera angle and cropping manipulated the objects to serve Western ideas of beauty and art. The exhibit also documents the histories and uses of the objects.
Art_Noire_BlanchePhiladelphia-born, Parisian artist Man Ray (1890–1976) has been recognized as one of the most important artists of the 20th century. He translated the early modernist taste for African art into photographs in the 1920s and ’30s. About 60 of these, many never before exhibited, along with more than 40 rare photographs by his contemporaries, Cecil Beaton, Walker Evans and Alfred Stieglitz, will appear side-by-side with some of the African objects featured in the images.
The exhibition, “Man Ray, African Art and the Modernist Lens,” reveals photography’s complex engagement with African art by exploring it in the context of American modernism and the Harlem Renaissance, surrealism and the worlds of high fashion and popular culture.
The UNM Art Museum is the only venue west of the Potomac River to present this ground-breaking exhibition, on view Feb. 6-May 30. The opening reception will feature jazz by Albuquerque’s Michael Anthony Trio on Friday, Feb. 5, 5-7 p.m. It is free to the public.
“Man Ray, African Art and the Modernist Lens” presents images and objects together to show how lighting, camera angle and cropping manipulated the objects to serve Western ideas of beauty and art. The exhibit also documents the histories and uses of the objects.