MAN RAY AND THE RAYOGRAPH

Stephanie D'Alessandro

MAN RAY AND THE RAYOGRAPH

Workshop
Art Institute of Chicago
Add to Calendar 2023-04-24 10:30:00 2023-04-24 10:30:00 MAN RAY AND THE RAYOGRAPH REGISTRATION REQUIRED: If you are interested in attending, please email arthistory@uchicago.edu as soon as possible.  This seminar concerns the rayograph, a type of photogram “invented” in 1922 by American artist Man Ray while living in Paris. Rayographs were ubiquitous in Dada and Surrealist circles and illustrated in countless contemporary journals; today, they are synonymous with concepts of the avant-garde and Modernism. While these works may share a certain initial “look,” closer inspection suggests variation in their process and manufacture, as well as links to other media—film, painting, assemblage—in which the artist worked. Man Ray began his photograms in the interval between Dada and Surrealism, a period characterized by Louis Aragon as “an absolutely new state of mind, which we amused ourselves by calling the mouvement flou.” In French, “flou” can mean blurry or out of focus, especially in relationship to photography. Aragon’s characterization offers a key to Man Ray, for whom indeterminacy and “in-betweenness” was not momentary, or solely photographic, but indicative of his art production overall. This seminar will center on a close study of rayographs in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, as well as comparative review of contemporary photograms by Christian Schad, László Moholy-Nagy, and El Lissitzky. We will also examine works in other media by Man Ray in the collection. Armed with historical and contemporary assessments of the rayograph, we will consider how the concept of flou might be mobilized as a signifier of transformation, fluctuation, and mobility in Man Ray’s work. The conversation will be led by guest, Stephanie D'Alessandro. Stephanie D'Alessandro is the Leonard A. Lauder Curator of Modern Art and Senior Research Coordinator in the Department of Modern and Contemporary Art. In addition to her role in the department, from 2017-2021, she was also the Curator in Charge of the Leonard A. Lauder Research Center for Modern Art. Before joining the Met in May 2017, D'Alessandro was the Art Institute of Chicago's Gary C. and Frances Comer Curator of International Modern Art. She has organized such major exhibitions as Matisse: Radical Invention, 1913-1917 (2010), Picasso and Chicago (2013), Magritte: The Mystery of the Ordinary, 1926-1938 (2014), Tarsila do Armaral: Inventing Modern Art in Brazil (2017), as well Surrealism Beyond Borders (2021-22). Her recent publications include topics on German and Latin American modernism, Surrealism, as well as many artists, including Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso.  Image details: Untitled, 1922, gelatin silver print, from the album Delicious Fields (Champs délicieux), 22 x 17.1 cm (8  11/16  x 6  ¾ in.), The Art Institute of Chicago, Julien Levy Collection, Special Photography  Acquisition Fund, 1979.104. Art Institute of Chicago Department of Art History drupal@seastar.uchicago.edu America/Chicago public

REGISTRATION REQUIRED: If you are interested in attending, please email arthistory@uchicago.edu as soon as possible. 

This seminar concerns the rayograph, a type of photogram “invented” in 1922 by American artist Man Ray while living in Paris. Rayographs were ubiquitous in Dada and Surrealist circles and illustrated in countless contemporary journals; today, they are synonymous with concepts of the avant-garde and Modernism. While these works may share a certain initial “look,” closer inspection suggests variation in their process and manufacture, as well as links to other media—film, painting, assemblage—in which the artist worked.

Man Ray began his photograms in the interval between Dada and Surrealism, a period characterized by Louis Aragon as “an absolutely new state of mind, which we amused ourselves by calling the mouvement flou.” In French, “flou” can mean blurry or out of focus, especially in relationship to photography. Aragon’s characterization offers a key to Man Ray, for whom indeterminacy and “in-betweenness” was not momentary, or solely photographic, but indicative of his art production overall. This seminar will center on a close study of rayographs in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, as well as comparative review of contemporary photograms by Christian Schad, László Moholy-Nagy, and El Lissitzky. We will also examine works in other media by Man Ray in the collection. Armed with historical and contemporary assessments of the rayograph, we will consider how the concept of flou might be mobilized as a signifier of transformation, fluctuation, and mobility in Man Ray’s work.

The conversation will be led by guest, Stephanie D'Alessandro. Stephanie D'Alessandro is the Leonard A. Lauder Curator of Modern Art and Senior Research Coordinator in the Department of Modern and Contemporary Art. In addition to her role in the department, from 2017-2021, she was also the Curator in Charge of the Leonard A. Lauder Research Center for Modern Art. Before joining the Met in May 2017, D'Alessandro was the Art Institute of Chicago's Gary C. and Frances Comer Curator of International Modern Art. She has organized such major exhibitions as Matisse: Radical Invention, 1913-1917 (2010), Picasso and Chicago (2013), Magritte: The Mystery of the Ordinary, 1926-1938 (2014), Tarsila do Armaral: Inventing Modern Art in Brazil (2017), as well Surrealism Beyond Borders (2021-22). Her recent publications include topics on German and Latin American modernism, Surrealism, as well as many artists, including Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso. 

Image details: Untitled, 1922, gelatin silver print, from the album Delicious Fields (Champs délicieux), 22 x 17.1 cm (8  11/16  x 6  ¾ in.), The Art Institute of Chicago, Julien Levy Collection, Special Photography  Acquisition Fund, 1979.104.