Man Ray
Who is Man Ray?
Man Ray is and American visual artist who spent most of his career in Paris. He was an incredibly significant contributor to the Dada and Surrealist movements during his career, although his ties to each were informal. He produced work in a variety of media but considered himself a painter above all.
Man was the son of Jewish immigrants who were born in Russia. The family moved to Brooklyn when Ray was a young child and from a very early year, Ray showed great artistic ability. After finishing high school in 1908, he pursued his passion for art and he studied valiantly in drawing with Robert Henri at the Ferrer Centre, and frequented Alfred Stieglitz's gallery 291. It later became apparent that Ray had been influenced by Stieglitz's photographs after all of his trips. He utilized a similar style, snapping images that provided an unvarnished look at the subject at hand.
Larmes (Glass Tears) - 1930 to 1932
Larmes is a photograph created by the American photographer Man Ray between 1930 and 1932. The image was published in the surrealist art magazine Minotaur around December 1935.
The photo is of a woman's upturned face with glass droplets placed on her cheeks to imitate tears. The have been multiple theories in the actual meaning of the piece of art. Historian Erin C. Garcia gave her thoughts and theorised that Ray "emulated the melodrama that compensated for the lack of dialogue in silent films" in Larmes and claimed that her eyes and eyelashes could be compared to "insect-like creatures with hundreds of legs", and another critic wondered whether the image was "ridiculing female crocodile tears, or pouring scorn on the men who are taken in by such sentimentalism.”
My thoughts?
I love Larmes as a piece and I think it’s really effective in its composition with the close-up shot and placement of the glass tears. The viewer is left with several questions after viewing this piece. Questions such as:
Why are her tears made of glass?
Why are her eyelashes clumped?
Why is she upset?
What does this piece mean?
All are questions that can't be answered but add mystery to the piece, making it all the more appealing to continue viewing. Due to the meaning of the dada movement I believe this to be some kind of powerful political statement but as to what that statement is, I'm unsure.
