Man Ray: Human Equations
opens June 11; Glyptoteket, Dantes Plads 7, Cph V; glyptoteket.com
Hailed as a contributor to Dadaism and surrealism and one of the first to embrace photography, Man Ray’s experimental nature led to the creation of many works.
He managed to immerse himself in the avant-garde communities on both sides of the Atlantic, first in New York, then in Paris.
He spent at least two decades focusing on photography and photograms, which he called ‘Rayograms’, and becoming a first mover within light painting. He was also a fan of solarisation, re-exposing negatives to light during development.
Ray considered himself a painter, however, and in the 1940s he created his ‘Shakespearean equations’, combining the Bard with mathematics through painting. Rarely shown before, these paintings are at the core of this exhibition.
Glyptoteket are showing these as part of over 100 pieces. As he was influenced by several movements including cubism, expressionism and modernism, they have decided to shun a chronological presentation in favour of an arrangement that accentuates his art.
The solutions to the riddles Ray was so fascinated by may be found in his art as it is displayed with the original mathematical models that initially spiked his curiousity.
This diverse offering will show just how boundless his creativity was, influencing among other things The Rocky Horror Picture Show with ‘The Lovers’ (also known as ‘The Lips’).
