Kreymborg and sought to create an artist’s com-
munity in Ridgefield. In 1914, Rudnitsky married
poet Adon Lacroix (Donna Lecoeur), with whom
he had been living for quite some time and offi-
cially changed his name to Man Ray.
During the fall of that year, Man Ray met
French avant-garde artist Marcel Duchamp, who
was at that time living in New York and had his
first solo exhibition at the Daniel Gallery, which
featured a collection of sketches and 30 paintings.
Arthur J. Eddy, a prominent attorney involved in
developing policies for modern trade, purchased six
paintings, which led Man Ray to move back to
Manhattan. In 1915, he purchased his first camera
for the purpose of documenting his own art work,
but was soon using it to explore new avenues of
creativity. His interest in nuance, for example,
appeared in his articulation of pictorial shadows
and was reflected in a painting from 1916 titled
The Rope Dancer Accompanies Herself With Sha-
dows. While attending a number of soirees at the
home of Walter Arensberg Man Ray associated
with many notable artists such as Americans
Charles Demuth, George Bellows, and the French
painter Francis Picabia. He also became an active
member in the nascent New York Dada movement.
Prior to his second solo show at the Daniel Gal-
lery during the winter of 1916, Man Ray experi-
mented relentlessly, designing a rotating collage
titledRevolving Doors. In 1917, he painted his first
‘‘aerograph,’’ which is a depiction made by airbrush
that emulates photographic effects, titledSuicide.
At this time, he also made the first of his ‘‘Eggbea-
ter’’ sculptures, which transformed the notion of
mundane utility into a latent sexual metaphor.
Man Ray’s work was beginning to be collected in
1918 by Ferdinand Howell and inspired him to
reproduceThe Rope Dancerinto an aerograph.
The rapid development and use of technology,
despite the benefit of new industries that developed
in Western society, to create fearsome instruments
of war during the First World War caused those
who were involved in the Dada and Surrealist
movements to decry the use of the machine. To
intellectuals of the post-World War I era, the no-
tion of freedom was believed to exist in anarchy.
Seeking intellectual and material autonomy, Man
Ray published a single issue of an anarchist maga-
zine titledTNTafter the newly-developed explosive
in March 1919. At this time, he also separated from
his wife and began a correspondence with leading
European Dada figure Tristan Tzara.
The following year he began collaborating with
Marcel Duchamp and attempted to make an ana-
glyphic movie with two cameras. On April 29, he
signed the constitution of ‘‘Socie ́te ́Anonyme Inc.’’
along with Duchamp and Katherine Dreier, a col-
lector of Modern art and founding director of the
Society of Independent Artists. During the sum-
mer, Man Ray followed Duchamp to Paris where
he was introduced to the Dadaists. During Novem-
ber of that year, Man Ray created his first rayo-
graph, also known as a photogram, which depicted
a silhouette upon paper without the use of either a
negative or a camera.
At the opening of his third solo show at the
Galerie des Six, he met composer Erik Satie with
whom he worked to createThe Gift, an iron whose
face bristled with nails, one of his many Dadaist
objects that transform everyday items into sculp-
tures rife with mystery or paradox, including the
now legendaryObject to be Destroyed, of 1923–
1932, a metronome affixed with a photographic
cut-out of an eye. He also made the acquaintance
of the famous French model, Kiki de Montpar-
nasse, of whom he made striking portraits, along
with other denizens of the Parisian avant-garde,
including Gertrude Stein and Jean Cocteau. By
1923, Man Ray was an established photographer
undertaking portrait and fashion assignments, and
hired Berenice Abbott as his assistant. His famous
image of Kiki shot nude from the back and embel-
lished with the ‘‘F’’-holes of a violin,Le Violon
d’Ingres, appeared in a 1924 issue ofLitte ́rature.
Voguealso published some of his fashion photo-
graphy in May of that year.
From the mid-1920s to the late 1930s, Man Ray
worked on avant-garde films with a number of
artists, including Marcel Duchamp and his ‘‘Ane-
mic Cinema,’’ and published his work in both
monographs and books of poetry. By 1929, Lee
Miller became his assistant. Man Ray later returned
to New York, in the summer of 1940, and stayed
there until 1951. After returning to Paris, however,
he spent less time with photography and focused
more of his time on painting. His photographic
work, however, brought him great acclaim: In
1961, he received the gold medal for photography
at the Venice Biennale and in 1967, he received
worldwide recognition in a show titled,Salute to
Man Raythat was held at the American Center in
Paris. By the time of his death on November 18,
1976 in Paris, Man Ray was a legend for his work
that propelled Surrealism into a lively, historic artMAN RAY