The primitive view of African art in much of Europe was reflected in noted Czech photographer Josef Sudek's "Cernosske masky,” 1932, a novel picture of two Dan masks from the Ivory Coast. "To further enhance the magical and spiritual quality of the sculptures, he placed them against a dark background,” says Czech photographic historian Tomas Winter. By having the masks slowly emerge from the shadows, Sudek "reflected contemporary stereotypes of Africa as a dark and dangerous continent.” Museum of Decorative Arts, Prague.
:Man Ray (1890–1978), the enfant terrible of American Modernism, made his greatest contribution to the movement through his pioneering photographs of African masks, headdresses and figures. These images influenced the work of European and American avant-garde artists, and promoted appreciation of African objects as works of art. Man Ray's Modernist photographic aesthetic had a significant impact on ways in which African art was interpreted at the beginning of the Twentieth Century.
Man Ray was part of a movement between the world wars in which photography emerged as a major vehicle of creative expression. The developing medium was embraced by artists on both sides of the Atlantic in search of new art forms that responded to the profound social upheavals of the era.
Man Ray led the way in introducing radical approaches to the art of photography.
His achievements as avant-garde provocateur and gifted photographer are celebrated in "Man Ray, African Art and the Modernist Lens," on view at The Phillips Collection through January 10. Organized by International Art and Artists and curated by independent historian Wendy A. Grossman, the exhibition showcases Man Ray photographs and photos by Modernist contemporaries, including Cecil Beaton, Walker Evans, Charles Sheeler and Alfred Stieglitz — men displayed with the African objects they depicted.
Born in Philadelphia to a family of Russian-Jewish immigrants, Emmanuel Radnitzky was raised in Brooklyn, where his parents operated a tailoring shop. In 1909, he changed his name to Man Ray. The entire family followed suit; all became Rays. It was said that Man Ray, who was reluctant to talk about his origins, was "practically allergic to history." Life to him offered a chance to create something new; he created a new name by streamlining the old one down to its snappiest portions.
In depicting the carving of a "Bangwa Queen” from Cameroon's Bangwa Kingdom in 1935, Walker Evans photographed the animated figure, right, softly lit and head-on, in keeping with his documentary style. "In contrast to Man Ray, whose composition obscures form to draw attention to the sculpture's expressive face, vitality and dynamic sense of motion,” says curator Wendy A. Grossman, "Evans brings out sculptural details and emphasizes the form of the entire figure represented in a more classical pose.” The contrasts between photos taken by the two skilled artists "demonstrate remarkably different visions in their approaches to the same subject matter,” Grossman observes. The gelatin silver print is from the Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona, gift of Tucson Museum of Art. ©Walker Evans Archive, the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Man Ray did poorly in academic subjects in school, but excelled at drawing and lettering. Turning down a scholarship to study architecture at New York University, he set out on his own to learn the fundamentals of making art.
Although largely self-trained, Man Ray studied briefly with Ashcan School artists Robert Henri and George Bellows, where he was delighted by the willingness of female classmates to strip and model during drawing class. Women and sex were driving forces in Man Ray's life and art. When asked as an old man what inspired him most, he responded, "Women."
Man Ray was shocked by the Armory Show of 1913, where he saw the work of European avant-garde, and particularly Marcel Duchamp, later his close ally and playmate. Around this time, Man Ray met and impressed Stieglitz, eminent photographer and, at his 291 gallery, champion of avant-garde art.
Among the exhibitions at 291 that influenced Man Ray were watercolors by Cezanne and Rodin; sculpture by Brancusi, and a groundbreaking display of African masks and other items. Until this time, African objects, seen as ethnologic curiosities, were considered primitive works outside the artistic mainstream and housed in cramped American natural history museums.
The 1914 installation at 291, with masks, figural sculptures and utilitarian objects exhibited against walls decorated with Cubist-like geometric forms, encouraged viewing the African sculpture as works of art meriting aesthetic consideration.
