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Provocative, self-promoting and visionary, Man Ray (1890-1976) is among the 20th century’s absolute heavyweights. As an artist he was born into the early European avant-garde. He left a distinct mark on both Dadaism and Surrealism and quickly assumed the position of a pioneer in modern photography. The summer’s major exhibition expands our notion of Man Ray and presents an unorthodox artist who goes far beyond the boundaries of the established categories in the history of art.

Man Ray – now with paintings

Only the very few associate Man Ray with colourful, pastose oil paintings of three-dimensional mathematical figures. A photographer who paints? A conceptual artist who wrestles with something as traditional as figurative painting? The Glyptotek’s major summer exhibition lifts Man Ray out of the usual narrative and draws a nuanced picture of an artist who from start to finish took the experiment as his life’s work. In addition to bringing together a considerable number of Man Ray’s major works, among them a number of his epoch-making photographs, the big scoop of the exhibition is the series of paintings Shakespearean Equations, which will be a new experience for most people.

Mathematics, the Body and Shakespeare

With the exhibition numbering some 100 works the whole of Man Ray’s artistic range is shown: from the youthful years to the late production, and thus also his supreme grasp of photography, sculpture and painting as well. The exhibition rejects the typical chronological presentation and focuses instead on the material synergy which exists between the works. Shakespearean Equations itself forms the principal axis in the exhibition and lays the foundation for Man Ray’s fascination with universal riddles. Here artistic practice meets mathematical puzzles, human bodies and Shakespeare’s merciless romanticism. Nothing less! Art becomes a prism for grand perspectives and puts the universe at the very top. Mind you, in a way which astonishes the eye and leaves the riddle intact.