Man Ray: Dada & Surrealism in Photography and Art

[00:00:05][Music] [Music] allone need to introduce myself I don't know who my public is going to be but they must surely know who I am this is Man Ray American Born who chose France as his most permanent home I seem to have become a legend and all legends are supposed to be of the past [Music] [Music] oh [Music] when the spirit moves me I use a stick with some hairs on it I become a painter my barber and the violinist above me also use sticks with hairs on them we have as much in common as if we were doing the same thing but we are also different they try to do their work as well as possible I simply try to be as free as possible I lived in New York from 1912 to 1914 but could no longer keep up with a pace so I moved to a little Shack in the country in New Jersey there used to be some sort of an art colony there which had been abandoned but the Shacks were still there and I installed myself and really began to paint like [Music] mad [Music] I tried all the art schools in America one after the other was a disappointment my subjects were not the subject of the usual art students oh I did a few portraits because the human face always interested me but I began to invent things invent subjects for my paintings such as using the dream as a motive or some incident in the street things that were considered not exactly picturesque let us say [Music] I still respected my technique because I felt that no matter how extravagant how unusual the subject of inspiration one had to use a tried and expert technique to convey it or to impress The [Music] Spectator this region and it is going to keep us in clear SK guyson night and lots of sunshine for tomorrow Francis picabia and Marcel Dua we seem to have something in common they had both broken away from the cubism of Paris and I had broken away from the schools around me or from what my contemporaries were doing so we sort of stuck together and I think this was the beginning of the Dada movement in New York and our principal object was to defy painting and literature which is perfectly consistent with the activities of the Parisian [Music] [Applause] deists [Music] [Applause] around 19 uh 1617 we received a letter from Paris the Gada group who had started in Zurich Switzerland had moved to Paris Tristan Sara tied up with a young group of poets in Paris like Bruton supo elard and Aragon and they really started the movement of Dada in Paris in its full [Music] swing Dua Pabi and myself did the same thing in New York with this difference and in Paris it became a great Scandal a great public scandal in New York we had attracted no attention [Music] whatever a group was founded in New York called the societ Anon in which ducha myself were the principal uh leaders and we showed some of the data works for instance once when I took a a lampshade that had come apart which made a very pleasing spiral and in the morning there was the stand but the spiral had gone so finally we questioned the janitor he said you mean that paper wrapping around the stand we managed to publish uh data magazine in New York only one issue appeared and I finally decided to leave New York du shampy cut beer had gone back so I packed up whatever paintings I had and left for [Applause] France the first day I arrived I was welcomed with open arms all the dests were there at the cafe where they usually met to receive me I was brought in by ducha none of us could understand each other but we didn't have to we were daus [Music] new during the first world war a number of Exiles met in zorich poets and Painters and as a protest against the uh collapse of society tried also to bring about a collapse of the so the idea of Revolt was in the [Applause] [Music] air [Music] [Applause] for [Applause] it wasn't humorous at all it may have looked like humor but we called it sometimes black humor it was uh corrosive humor it was uh more than satire more than irony it was [Music] revolutionary [Applause] Duan was absolutely uncompromising for this object of manre is called the K it's not a sadistic in instrument it is the idea to make a useful object unuseful [Music] in 1921 the first exhibition of manre in Paris was at the Philip supo Gallery daada it was a cold November day and he met Eric Sati in the gallery who said young man let's go out and have a hot grog so they went out and on the way they saw a hardware store and since manry didn't speak French he asked Sati to get him a flat eye and then tax which he did then he conceived the idea of the Kad and the name Kad was because he was going to give it to the poet suo during the exhibition disappeared unfortunately somebody stole a gift during the opening and I cons so the uh was suo one of the young daddies I said I'd make him another one and I have been making other ones for the last 25 30 [Music] years I took up a photography first of all to make reproductions of my own paintings not being satisfied with the reproductions made by others so good were they that when I arrived in France and showed them around I was immediately commissioned to photograph The Works of all my contemporary painters I mean Brock Picasso matis Duran all the painters Bron cusi the sculptor asked me to photograph his work for him it was really very encouraging and being as I said in the very beginning always interested in the human face I began to do [Music] portraits [Music] e my portraits of my illustrious contemporaries seemed to have much more success even than my reproductions of their works it was but a step from doing these portraits to photograph everybody who came along and they did come along they came through my studio by thousands and I have a wonderful record in my files of contemporary life life of that [Music] [Laughter] [Music] period it was everybody who came in into my studio in the 20s and 30s was photographed automatically like a photoon for passports when they opened the door the camera clicked and they were [Music] [Music] photographed [Music] [Music] for [Music] [Applause] [Music] since I have these two arrows for my bow it's a question of economy if I have an idea and it's more direct and simple to realize it in paint I'll do it in paint but if it's a portrait let's say or a particular scene that is already set up for me why it's so much more economical and direct to photograph [Music] it [Music] oh [Applause] [Music] [Music] for [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] a I began to see in photography a form of exercising a black and white art similar to etching or engraving of the old times after all it is the etching and Engraving of today it is drawing with light and chemistry instead of with a pencil or ink I began to play with photography then for myself I began to make abstra compositions without the use of a camera of course we all know in childhood uh the little trick of placing a leaf in a frame with a piece of sensitive photographic paper and exposing it to the Sun in this way we get a silhouette I Carri the process a little further by uh using three-dimensional objects anything that came to hand posing them on the sensitive surface in my dark room exposing it to light and getting almost a three-dimensional effect in photography those are called [Music] rayographs I began to experiment in other directions with my photography for instance one day I got tired of working in the dark room I've been developing some films so I turned on the bright light to look at them not caring whether they would be ruined well that has happened to other photographers by mistake in my case after examining the [ __ ] I found that a certain phenomenon had been produced that there was a black line a neutral zone between the lights and the darks so I began to make [Music] prints this has been since called solarization the rayographs were begun in 1921 the solarization process was developed around [Music] 1929 all the dsts announced that they would give a grand presentation of the data [Music] process SAR came to me and said you've got to participate in this why not make a film for tomorrow night so we can project this film I said yes but a film takes some time to do well do it the way you do your abstract photographs you know just with anything object you have in the studio I said all right I got a couple of hundred fet of Cinema film I cut them up in pieces laid it out on my table in the dark room sprinkled it with salt and pepper pins and needles thumb tags Bits of Paper developed it stuck the pieces together and we had a film for the daada uh presentation the next day the whistling began about 10 minutes after the show started because 12 poets started to read their poetry simult anly the audience began to whistle and boo but still they kept their seats until my film was projected things began to jump on the screen and the people began to jump around in the theater as well one man shouted that he wanted his money back another one shouted to him to keep quiet that if he didn't like it he could leave so the first man hauled off and hit him in the face it was a freefor all then that was practically the end of ISM we couldn't go any further and there was a lull for a year or so while we reorganized our forces people have been saying before that da ISM was dead but nobody knew it better than the surrealists one might say that the da movement ended officially around 1923 and it was most of the same poets and Painters who slid over into the surrealist movement the surrealist managed to publish several magazines and they were all read with a great deal of interest and seemed to influence the younger Generations very much I think it is primarily a literary movement because the word counts for more than any plastic uh presentation [Music] I said that recently to Andre bretone who is the father of serialism soall I believe that uh there is no such thing as serialist painting it is the writers who are surrealists who have put their fingers on certain Works amongst our painters and have immediately called them sist [Music] works [Music] brto was a very rigorous person quick to criticize any departure from the rules or the what he had establish as the rules of surrealism things that were accepted or not acceptable we were often criticized for divergences a way one would be criticized in a political movement in a political [Music] party [Music] div [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] no [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] serialism also is a movement of Revolt but it chooses its own weapons new weapons serialism tries to replace not to annihilate now surrealism was a more constructive movement I think was influenced by the uh writings of Freud psychology the idea of going as in da ISM to new sources of inspiration the dream world automatism of chance and hasz it also figured but it was quite different because a little more attention was paid to technique which I had always insisted [Music] on am I a photographer or am I a painter well do I have to choose between the two why can't I have both I am greedy I do many other things too some of which I cannot even mention here [Music] oh oh oh [Music] [Music] [Applause] oh [Music] [Music] 19 the 19 [Music] [Music] for for [Music] [Music] spe [Music] when I met manre in California we had dinner the first night we went down dancing took me rowing West Lake Park the next day we had dinner dancing and then we were together forever the least motion I did man R would photograph me from California Beverly Hills Man Ray myself dorothia tanning and Max an we decided to get married it was called a double wedding in Beverly Hills never know to this day if we were not each one the husband and wife of each [Music] other this is the first car we had in California called The Graham supercharger he was a very fast [Music] driver during that time a very good friend of ours withan renis stravinski and we often went to Big Sir to Henry Miller the rider and of course Ava Gardner gorgeous creature was lovely having all these beautiful people around [Music] [Applause] we [Music] we left to California from New York and took a boat called the degrass to come back to Paris the boat took 9 days was a long trip when we arrived in Paris there was a general strike nothing was working and we stayed in a little hotel M panas for 3 months until we found this studio roof Ro it was a great big barn all white and we slept on the floor and then eventually 2 or 3 months he put up that balcony we set up housekeeping and he started to paint and photographed all his works of art but he wouldn't do photography professional anymore [Music] this the metronome first it was called object to be destroyed 1958 it was destroyed and he made a new one he called it indestructible object so we use the original eye was an eye from a friend and this one is a blinking eye and then in one phrase I read he said take cut out the eye of a from a photograph of one you love and put it on the metronome until you can't stand it then Hammer the whole thing and destroy you this subject is called smoking device all the is the smoke comes out immediately it's a pipe stand marbles pleasure and the pursuit of Freedom are the guiding motives in all human activity the the pursuit of freedom is work the pursuit of pleasure is the [Music] [Applause] [Music] play [Music] let us enjoy or ignore that is the only attitude to take in reference to works of art or any human [Music] [Laughter] activity all work and all play are the signature of their authors would you have me change my signature or my [Applause] sex I may designed very many chest sets nine or 10 different designs if he didn't have anyone to play with he would play from books and newspapers and whenever marel du came here they'd always mull over a problem but play [Music] again [Music] they were very individual but they mainly enjoyed seeing each other but when you are a painter being a painter is almost like a language you develop your own language and then you have to repeat it or speak in that way and marel always wanted to uh find something different not to repeat himself in that way when he had the new descending staircase he was very much in the public eye everybody was always watching to see what he was doing so the only way he could reserve his freedom of any kind is just to say I'm not working he was fascinated by our time and machinery and all the even things related to movies and things like that all those mybridge photographs and so forth and I'm sure a man was too so he had a great relationship there and man was fascinated in anything new and so was [Music] myself [Music] I am in no hurry at all and I don't want to produce a new collection every year I have never painted a recent picture art is not a science art is not an experiment there is no progress in art anymore than there is progress in making love there are simply different ways of doing it there may be a Satan progress in the individual but his signature remains unchanged when I am asked what is my object what am I after in my work well anything that comes into my mind of course as a doist as a surrealist things of chance you know would be my sources of [Music] inspiration whatever the others disapproved of that was the direction I was to take in my production you see it is uh revolutionary but all worthwhile art is [Music] revolutionary they say that uh I'm ahead of the times I said no I'm of my time it's the others who are behind the times I am very curious and I want to be free one way of being free is never to repeat myself if possible and to contradict myself even my photography with my painting and drawing for painters well photography is not art can never be art well yes I've changed my attitude for a while now I would say now art is not [Music] photography let me end this explanation with a statement the tricks of today are the truths of tomorrow [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] yeah [Applause] [Music] [Applause]