Tag Archives: Lee Miller

Partners in Surrealism: Lee Miller and Man Ray

Lee Miller’s lips fly over a forest in Man Ray’s “Observatory Time - The Lovers,” an oil painting from 1934. The surrealist art of Lee Miller and Man Ray are presented together for the first time in a museum show, Man Ray/Lee Miller, Partners in Surrealism. Anthony Penrose, Miller’s son, and curator Phillip Prodger discuss the artists on NPR. Continue reading






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Shed A Tear For The Subversion of Images… and Hackneyed Colonialism

I admit it. When I compared Man Ray’s “Emak-Bakia” to Avatar the other day, I was listening to the crasser angels of search engine optimization. You know, the ones that tell you to forget everything you ever learned about writing clever magazine headlines. Just pack every Google ad word you can into the blog title. So I threw in Avatar and nothing happened.






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Was Man Ray’s “Emak-Bakia” the “Avatar” of the 1920s?

When Man Ray’s short film “Emak-Bakia” debuted in Paris in 1926, critical opinion was mixed. One angry viewer shouted that it gave him a headache and hurt his eyes, to which another retorted, “Shut up!” A brawl ensued, which spread through the audience and spilled into the street. Then the police arrived to quell the riot.






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Who Spied On Lee Miller?

Lots of people lined up to peek through the keyhole for a glimpse of Lee Miller, whose meteoric career arced from Vogue fashion model to Surrealist muse to intrepid war photographer. The voyeurs included Condé Nast, Man Ray, Jean Cocteau, … Continue reading






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Lee Miller: Surrealist Solarization

Man Ray. Portrait of Lee Miller. 1930. [Source: Columbia Magazine/Man Ray Trust]






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