For the first 30 years of the 20th century, Montparnasse was a hotbed of artistic activity and the centre of avant-garde Europe. Man Ray was there to document it. He photographed the artists, writers and poets. Within a year of his arrival, he was invited to be Gertrude Stein's official portraitist and to record the image of Marcel Proust on his deathbed. He photographed Picasso and Peggy Guggenheim, made films alongside Andre Breton and played chess with Marcel Duchamp. Man Ray's colourful biography is merged with his black-and-white images to create an intimate perspective on the legendary Left Bank of Paris in the years between the two World Wars.
| ||||||||||||
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
The Paris dada manifesto of 1921 "Dada Overthrows Everything" posed a dare to posterity: "What does Dada do? 50 francs reward for anyone who finds the way to explain us." Cultural historian Herbert Lottman finds a great way to explain dada: by focusing on its court photographer, Man Ray. Man Ray's Montparnasse brings you into the salons of Peggy Guggenheim and Gertrude Stein, and gives context to his dazzling photos: his naked mistress Kiki impersonating a violin; Duchamp impersonating a woman named Rrose Selavy (pronounced "c'est la vie"); Picasso as a toreador; and Proust on his deathbed, asleep at last, seemingly at peace and in some sort of reverie.
If one man's life could sum up the explosively creative international arts enclave Montparnasse in Paris between the wars, doubtless it would be Man Ray. Who else crossed paths with Hemingway, Mayakovski, Calder, James Joyce, T.S. Eliot, Atget, Satie, Cocteau, the battling bohemians André Breton and Tristan Tzara, and Arno Breker, who wound up as Hitler's favorite sculptor? It was a tumultuously innovative time. The antiwar Swiss loathed the elitist French dadaists; dadaists quarreled with surrealists. Breton broke a writer's arm with his cane because he badmouthed Picasso, Duchamp, and Gide. When Malcolm Cowley punched out a reactionary restaurateur, it was a great career move--his fame spurred his nascent literary career. Apollinaire warned young dada friends against Cocteau ("Don't trust Cocteau! He's a cheat and a chameleon!"), because he was a darling of high society. Eluard said the surrealists would "shoot him down like a stinking animal."
What made Man Ray an instant insider was his skill with the camera and his refusal to join the culture wars. "My neutral position was invaluable to all," he said. "I became an official recorder of events and personalities." "He was like the kid on the block with the guitar invited to everyone's party," writes Lottman. "He lived a double life, dressing for dinner in society, then reassuming a bohemian posture for life among the writers and painters."
Lottman's book is delightful, a quick read that makes legendary names in the history of art come alive as wildly misbehaving young people. When Henry Miller would drunkenly harangue a café, he earned a catcall: "Why don't you write a book?" Reading Lottman, you get a vivid sense of how the overlapping lives in that astounding time and place erupted in art. It's a privilege to be invited to such a historic party. --Victoria Ellison
From Publishers Weekly
With Neil Baldwin's definitive 1991 biography, an autobiography and any number of scholarly monographs available, one might question the need for another book on the great modernist photographer. What sets Lottman's compact and breezy study apart from a thick pack is its view of Ray's Parisian career as a neighborhood phenomenon, one in which the geography of chance which cafes were popular, which buildings had cheap studio space, who moved down the street from who has as much to do with the direction of both Ray's career and 20th-century art as any manifestos or larger historical forces. A biographer of Camus, Colette and Flaubert, Lottman, PW's European correspondent, holds a very clear image of historical Montparnasse in his head, and he renders the confusing overlap of individuals, groups and artistic movements with a lucidity that is journalistic in the very best sense. All of the expected characters are here, from the enigmatic Robert Desnos to the obnoxious Andre Breton. Lottman is endearingly old school in his treatment of the often extraordinary women who moved through this milieu, from the legendary Kiki of Montparnasse to Lee Miller, rhapsodizing about their charm and beauty in a politically incorrect, rather innocent way. At the center, though, is Man Ray, who moved through every aspect of interwar Parisian culture with ease, grace and professional success. While Hemingway and Henry Miller lived on fried potatoes and the kindness of strangers, Ray tooled around in a sports car paid for by his lucrative portraits. Like Warhol after him, Ray (n‚ Emanuel Rudnitsky, 1890- 1976)combined artistic integrity, a fascination with celebrity and an ability to stay neutrally above political and social storms to create a uniquely focused and enduring body of work. Even those deeply familiar with the artist and his era will enjoy Lottman's spirited account.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
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
22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Shallow Scholarship,
By A Customer
This review is from: Man Ray's Montparnasse (Hardcover)
Man Ray's experience in Paris is a fascinating and complex subject, certainly worthy of a book unto itself. Unfortunately the author of this book seems content to present his readers with out-of-date information. I do not pretend to be an expert on Man Ray. But I have researched extensively the life and photography of Berenice Abbott, whose own career and reputation is remarkably tangled up with Man Ray's. In Paris she worked for him as his darkroom assistant, shared his fascination for Eugene Atget's photographs, was fired by Man Ray (when Peggy Guggenheim called him on the telephone and requested a portrait sitting with her instead of him) and, until she moved back to the States in early 1929, competed with him for fashionable Paris portrait sitters. What I discovered in reading "Man Ray's Montparnasse" is that Lottman has not dug very deep into recently published scholarship, and thus perpetuates certain inaccuracies. For example, Lottman writes that Julien Levy, a mutual friend of Man Ray and Abbott, loaned Abbott money to purchase the Atget's archive in 1927, shortly after Atget's death. In fact, Levy did not invest in the Atget archive until 1930, three years later. Perhaps this seems like a minor detail, but for me it raises questions about the accuracy of the entire project. Moreover, other recent scholars have gotten this detail right, including Bonnie Yochelson in her 1997 book on Abbott, "Berenice Abbott: Changing New York: The Complete WPA Project" and Ingrid Schaffner in "Julien Levy: Portrait of an Art Gallery" (1998). For those interested in a more scholarly treatment of Man Ray's life and work, I highly recommend Neil Baldwin's 1988 "Man Ray: American Artist." For those fascinated by Paris in the early 20th century, I suggest Billy Kluver and Julie Martin's richly illustrated "Kiki's Paris: Artists and Lovers 1900-1930."
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Don't do Montparnasse without it, an interesting book,
By
This review is from: Man Ray's Montparnasse (Hardcover)
It was merely coincidence that one day after returning from Paris (I always stay in a small hotel on rue Delambre in Montparnasse) I was in a bookstore in Colorado and picked this up just for the title.
Little did I know it would explode with stories and much interesting stories (I'm no historian and cannot verify their accuracy) and anecdotes about the photographer Man Ray and all his notorious friends & lovers in the pre WWII era of Montparnasse when Dada and Surrealism were taking hold. As I had spent so many hours wandering the same streets and sitting in the same cafes it really grabbed me and was a very interesting read. In short, if you: (any or all of the below)- Love Paris; plan to go there; have interest in the "lost generation/cafe society" era of Paris and particularly Montparnasse (one of my favorite areas in Paris); then you are crazy if you don't at least check this book out. I'll use it for reference on my Montparnasse cafe crawls when I return next year.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fascinating View of Montparnasse,
By Vilis R. Inde (Alexandria, VA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Man Ray's Montparnasse (Hardcover)
Although I cannot attest to the scholarly quality of "Man Ray's Montparnasse", I believe that Lottman provides insight into this Parisian art district.The reader learns about the different bars/clubs that were important. He learns who met where; the locations of various artist studios; and the general feel of the era. The dissent in the da da movement and the surrealist movement was significant. Man Ray's neutral role in all of this is interesting. Lottman makes it appear that obtaining portrait sitters was one of Ray's primary goals. That along with women and his cars. I enjoyed the book and believe that there is much to be learned from it. Caveat: If there are historicals errors as the other reviewer mentions, then it is difficult to know what you can and cannot believe.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
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
|
