Focusing on Man Ray, Philadelphia-born Dadaist/surrealist photographer and painter, this is one of an illustrated series which provides accounts of the lives of individual artists, professional and personal anecdotes and concise definitions of cultural and social movements that shaped their work.
| ||||||||||||
Book Description
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Excellent Introduction to Man Ray,
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Essential Man Ray (Hardcover)
Reading these "essential facts about various people and subjects" has always seemed a bit like cheating to me. I suppose the format reminds me of "Cliff Notes" and most people substitute reading those for the actual full-length book. However, if this is the only exposure a reader is going to have to a particular artist such as Man Ray, real name Emmanuel Rudnitsky, then this is a very successful first exposure. Hopefully, the biographical information, photographs and other illustrations of Man Ray's paintings, found objects, sculptures, chess boards and figures, will make the reader want to dig deeper and learn more about this particularly fascinating artist. He was a Dadaist, a Surrealist, and the founder of Fetish photography among other things. He is most famous as a photographer, which is how he earned his money when he first moved to the "Camelot of Art" that was the Montparnasse section of Paris during the "Roaring Twenties."
The author does a good job of showing samples of the most famous of Man Ray's works. She also introduces many of the people who surrounded him. She even refers to Man Ray's 1963 autobiography, "Self Portrait", which is one of the best sources of more information about him as long as one isn't too fussy about accurate dates and the fact that he hardly mentions one of the most important muses and mistresses in his life, Lee Miller. This book does a good job of attempting to explain some of the seemingly mysterious philosophies of Dada, Surrealism, Found Objects and other somewhat confusing facets of these particular movements. Perhaps a few of the book's conclusions are debatable, especially those regarding her conclusions on the "essential mystery" of Man Ray. Man Ray was a freedom-loving artist who lived puzzles, puns and contradictions. He was constantly moving back and forth between the visual arts to keep his creative energies fresh and in an exploration mode. He lived a truly fascinating life and documented much of it. Even his recollections of living in occupied Paris during World War II are note worthy. This is an excellent and well-done book but it will probably only wet the appetite of the reader who will no doubt want to return to the buffet table for more Man Ray insights?
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
the greatest book i read this month!,
By melanie "melanie" (NY,USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Essential Man Ray (Hardcover)
i started this book and could not stop! it's easy to read, fun, full of relevant information. I feel I know Man Ray better than he did! And the three days I took to read the book feel like a trip in the 1920s.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A good, quick introduction,
By
This review is from: The Essential Man Ray (Hardcover)
Apparently pitched to a high-school audience, this miniature coffee-table book is still entertaining and very worthwhile.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Inside This Book
(learn more)
Citations (learn more)
1
book
cites this book:
- Dada Culture: Critical Texts on the Avant-Garde (Avant-Garde Critical Studies 18) by Dafydd Jones (Ed.) in Back Matter
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
