manray – FTN-blog

Posted on 14 December 202025 August 2020 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Man Ray and Lee Miller (5)

Schermafbeelding 2020-08-25 om 15.27.30

Although Man Ray insisted that he didn’t take student apprentices, the successful model Lee Miller relocated to Paris for a chance at working with the iconic artist. She became his photographic assistant, his muse and, later, his lover. The romance was short and sweet, but the two-year relationship was a productive one. Before finding herself as a photographer and becoming an active member of the Surrealist movement, Miller discovered the solarisation technique Man Ray would later trademark. She is also credited for many of the artist’s photographs taken between 1929 and 1932, as she stepped in while he worked on his paintings.

The following titles are available at www.ftn-books.com

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Posted on 27 October 201922 July 2019 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Kiki’s Paris: Artists and Lovers, 1900-1930 (1989)

Schermafbeelding 2019-07-22 om 12.23.51

A portrait of Montparnasse in the first decades of the century, this attractive book of some 650 black-and-white photos uses, as a focal point, the artist, artist’s model, singer, dancer and actress Kiki (born Alice Ernestine Prin). Proclaimed “Queen of Montparnasse” in 1929 by the newspaper Paris-Montparnasse , she was outrageous, charming, beautiful, talented–and so is the Paris that emerges. We see the cafes–Dome, Rotonde, Coupole, etc.–where notable artists Matisse, Modigliani, Picasso, Man Ray, Stein, Leger, Cocteau, Brancusi, Soutine and hundreds of others hung out, the studios in which they worked, the parties they went to, the vacations they took and the galleries where they exhibited.

The text, deliberately understated, takes a back seat to the photos, offering introduction, explanation and anecdote. Kluver, president of Experiments in Art and Technology, and Martin, a staff member at the the same foundation, have assembled a lavish, information-packed look at the people and places of an important, exciting era in art history.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

This title is now available at www.ftn-books.com

Posted on 2 November 201814 August 2018 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Meret Oppenheim (1913-1985)

Schermafbeelding 2018-08-14 om 14.59.07

Back to back …yesterday’s blog on Dennis Oppenheim…and this one on Meret Oppenheim.

There is absolutely no family relation between these two and Meret Oppenheim has proven her importance over the years. At least there is a generation gap of two generations between these 2 artists. She became friends with Arp, Breton, Duchamp and Man Ray. The last made an important and very well known photo series of her in Paris in which she figured.

Schermafbeelding 2018-08-14 om 14.30.15

At this time in Paris she was called and considered the MUSE of the surrealists. This series made her an instant success, but this success suffocated her too and she decided to return to Basel and start her own artist career.

She had her studio’s in Basel and Bern and for the last city she left after her death one third of collection to the Bern museum.

Perhaps her most well know work is LE DEJEUNER EN FOURRURE. A large work which was criticized by many, but what now has become one of the icons in Modern Art.

Schermafbeelding 2018-08-14 om 14.56.22