Photography

Alias Man Ray: The Art of Reinvention, at the Jewish Museum, New York, November 15, 2009 – March 14, 2010

In preparing his probing, focused, and entirely convincing examination of Man Ray, Mason Klein can hardly have been under the illusion that the artist—or his Manes—would thank him for resurrecting his persona along with his art. Indeed, the exhibition presents an irresistible case for the originality and, above all, the enduring power of Man Ray’s art to fascinate. However, in order to find his individuality, the curator found it necessary to dissect Man Ray’s life and character, which was as much a construct as any of his collages or Dada objets. In order to create, Man Ray had to create himself, and at times in his life this self-creation was and end in itself, even his primary expression. His invented self not only gave him a more comfortable face to present to the world, it gave him the freedom to work as an artist, just as he needed Paris as the the stage for his performance as Man Ray. Klein’s examination is anything but non-destructive. Once he has finished lifting the layers off Man Ray’s self-construction, there is nothing left. While I believe there is credit in respecting an artist’s vision of him or herself—good manners are not at all out of place in art history—I believe Man Ray’s unmasking was absolutely necessary in this case, in order for us to understand his art and to appreciate it with new respect, but without mythologies or adulation.

Irish Travellers, Tinkers No More: Photographs and Traveller, a film by Alen MacWeeney (UPDATED, including audio: Traveller Liam Weldon sings “The Blue Tar Road”)

In his important collection of anthropological photography, Robert Gardner made clear the connection between the ethnographer’s record of life in western Papua or Ethiopia and the photojournalist’s observation of downtown Barcelona or Dallas. Alen MacWeeney’s Irish Travellers, Tinkers No More is one further document in this fluid branch of study. The travellers were and still are a constant presence in Ireland, where MacWeeney was born and raised, although, at least in the 1960′s when these photographs were made, a largely unseen one—this is, on purpose. A professional need, it seems, sucked Alen MacWeeney into their society, and he remained, to observe and experience it in depth. Now, after some forty years, this experience has been made public.

György Kepes: a Polaroid and a Reminiscence

This hypnotic light graphic, which was commissioned by the Polaroid Corporation, was done using a 20″ x 24″ Land camera.

It illustrates a few intriguing things about color perception in Polaroid technology and Mr. Kepes’s unique insight about how to make it effective within his own artistic methods and intentions. If the colors that are being photographed are somewhat achromatic, i.e., neutral, they appear to be more “real”, i.e., because the viewer is not searching his color memory to decide whether the colors resemble the vividness of a rose, for example. The gray gridded background, crossword puzzle on paper, ink-on canvas, Braille sample, half-silvered prism, reflections and cast shadows are virtually achromatic, in spite of the fact that this is a color photograph.