Upon watching the documentary of the life and work of Man Ray I was really left with a strong desire to learn more about the artist, the Dadaist and their influence on artists today. I liked that Man Ray, like many artists, was less concerned with success in the cultural sense and more concerned with being true to himself and his art. I believe it was this character trait that really drew Man Ray the Dadaist movement. According to Wikipedia, the proponents of Dada believed that they were an “anti-art” movement in the sense that it was a rebellion against the contemporary academic and cultured values of art. Where traditional art was concerned with aesthetics, Dada ignored aesthetics. Through their rejection of traditional aesthetics the Dadaist hoped to destroy traditional culture and aesthetics ( Wikipedia, Dada.)
While I don’t believe that Dada destroyed traditional culture and aesthetics it did broaden the scope of what is considered art today. I find myself often passing by art that doesn’t conform to my learned idea of what I consider aesthetically pleasing Man Ray’s “gift” for example is a piece that I would have probably passed by and thought, “well, that’s cool. I guess,” without much thought afterwards. After learning more about Man Ray and the Dadaist movement I want to spend more time thinking about it and think about what the artists intent was. Maybe Man Ray had no grand message he was trying to get across and he did it just because he wanted to, maybe that’s the point. Regardless the work has become something that permeates my mind and causes me to question what art is. Things that make you go Hmm, eh? (CC Music Factory, 1991.)
I especially found myself drawn to Man Ray’s photography and film work. I kept thinking of how much his work must have influenced others specifically Anton Corbijn. I wanted to see more of Anton’s work to really identify specific works that had a very Man Ray feel to them. I went back and resisted a lot of Anton’s photography and video work, specifically his work with Depeche Mode (80’s Synth Gods from Basildon England with a career spanning 20 + years. Best known for such hits as Personal Jesus and Enjoy the Silence.) Corbijn tends to eschew traditional glamour photography, instead favoring a rawer look, often in black-and-white. His subjects appear to be calm and far removed from everyday life. His photographs show raw emotion. His influential style of black and white imagery with stark contrasts on grainy film (sometimes referred to as “overcooked”) has been imitated and copied in such extent that it has become a rock cliché and a vital part of the visual language in the 1990s (Wikipedia, Anton Corbijn.) Anton Corbijn's sleeve deign for the 1991 Depeche Mode release “Personal Jesus” and Man Ray’s “Prayer” both have a similar feel to them. Both images are sensual by nature and have stark contrasts to them. I think the artists’ use of stark contrast heightens the sense of danger and hints at the voyeuristic tendencies in the viewer.
I also could not ignore the possible homage to Man Ray’s photo of the neck of Lee Miller in Corbijn’s 1991 sleeve design for Depeche Mode’s “Policy of Truth."
Man Ray like Corbijn preferred to capture their subjects in natural relaxed states as opposed to the more popular posed and airbrushed styles. Man Rays catalog cover with his finger in his nose really reminded me of Corbijn’s well-known photo of Miles Davis. Both artist embraced the oily skin, wrinkles and other so called imperfections of their subjects.
Anton Corbijns video work also reminded me of Man Ray’s. In class we saw a clip of a Man Ray film with a woman with a set of eyes painted on her eyelids. Anton Corbijn did the same thing with his 1997 video for Depeche Mode’s “ Barrel of a gun. Both film/video works have a very similar avant-garde feel to them.
I also found influences of Man Ray’s “Emak-Bakia” in the set design for Depeche Mode’s 2005 world tour for the album “Playing the Angel.” Corbijn created a large steel globe with various LED’s would scroll by with various words such as “love”, “angel”,“sex” and pain. The set design reminded me of “Emak-Bakia” in the way Man Ray used moving text in his film. (Both works can be found on You Tube, sorry for the lack of direct links.)
( Set design for Depeche Mode 2005 tour.)
In conclusion, I’m glad I was introduced to Man Ray and his work. I’m eager to explore the influence of Man Ray and the Dadaist in my own work and other artists I appreciate today.
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