First Major Man Ray Retrospective Opens in London

For the first time, a major museum retrospective of Man Ray’s work is opening at the National Portrait Gallery in London. The exhibition, entitled Man Ray Portraits, focuses on his career in America and Paris between 1916 and 1968 and features more than 150 of his key works.

Celebrated as one of the leading artists of the Dada and Surrealist movements. Man Ray rose to fame because of his experimentation with color as well as his, at the time, revolutionary photographic techniques.

Born in Philadelphia and having spent his formative years in New York, this influential and innovative artist was first a painter who only turned to photography to reproduce his work and then later to fund his work. At fateful meeting with Marcel Duchamp in 1915 led Man Ray to Paris and, as they say, the rest is history

Guests who visit the exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery will enjoy vintage prints from international museums as well as personal collections with subjects ranging from cultural figures and friends including Marcel Duchamp, Jean Cocteau, Pablo Picasso, James Joyce, Henri Matisse, Salvador Dali, Aldous Huxley, Coco Chanel and Wallis Simpson, to name a few. Mark your diaries and get here before it’s gone.

Man Ray Portraits is at the National Portrait Gallery until May 27, 2013.

www.npg.org.uk