Man Ray, surrealist master and
exponent of the Dada movement, managed to reinvent not only the
photographic language, but also the representation of the body and face,
as well as the genres of the nude and the portrait themselves.


This
book brings together around 200 photographs produced from the 1920s
right up to his death in 1976, all featuring female subjects.Through
rayographs, solarisations and double exposures, the female body
undergoes a continual metamorphosis of forms and meanings, becoming an
abstract form, an object of seduction, classical memory or realistic
portrait, in endless playful and refined variations. Among the
protagonists of his shots are Lee Miller, Berenice Abbott, Dora Maar and
Juliet, a lifelong companion, to whom is dedicated the amazing The Fifty Faces of Juliet
portfolio (1943-1944). But these women were, in turn, great artists: as
evidence is presented here a corpus of works dating back to the time -
between the 1930s and '40s - of their most direct association with Man
Ray and with the environment of the Dada avant-garde and Parisian
surrealism.


This volume offers a wide survey of one of the most
exuberant periods of the 20th century, with authentic masterpieces of
photographic art such as the Electricité portfolios (1931) and the very rare Les mannequins. Résurrection des mannequins (1938).


Text in English and Italian.