The Ultimate Surrealist Object: Two People Inescapably Drawn to Each Other

Love, Lust and Desire Exhibit

At the center of modern art history is a love story between two artists who could not live with or without each other. The Peabody Essex Museum presents Man Ray | Lee Miller, Partners in Surrealism featuring 76 works by two giants of the Surrealism movement and other renowned artists in their circle including Pablo Picasso, Dora Maar, Max Ernst, Alexander Calder, and Le Corbusier. The exhibit is on view from June 11, 2011 to December 4, 2011.

From 1929 to 1932, Man Ray and Lee Miller lived together in Paris, first as teacher and student, and later as lovers. Their mercurial relationship resulted in some of the most powerful work of each artist's career and helped shape the course of modern art. Combining rare vintage photographs, paintings, sculpture and drawings, this exhibition tells the story of the artists' brief but intense relationship in Paris, their lifelong friendship, and the unique nature of their creative partnership. It also offers a window into the maelstrom of artistic and social experimentation that animated Paris in the 1930s and gave inspiration to writers, poets, filmmakers, musicians and visual artists of all stripes.

"This exhibition is a microcosm of Surrealism, embodied by two people and their feelings for each other. Together, Man Ray and Lee Miller became the ultimate Surrealist object — two people who were inescapably drawn to each other, but could not make it work," said Phillip Prodger, PEM Curator of Photography.

Despite the impact their relationship had on both artists, this will be the first exhibition ever organized that features Man Ray and Lee Miller together on equal terms. Lee Miller is regarded here as an artist and potent Surrealist force in her own right rather than a mere foil for Man Ray's work. Historically, Miller has been described as Ray's muse, but their love affair was in fact a key source of mutual and sustained inspiration which pushed the art of their time in a new direction.

The Provocateur
Man Man Ray was a leader in two pioneering Modern art movements, Surrealism and Dada, but was never deeply invested in either categorization. Although accomplished as an avant-garde photographer, he defied labels and thought of himself as a painter first, ultimately wed to no single medium. Man Ray's camerawork marked a turning point in the integration of photography among other visual art forms. An artist with great clarity of intention, Ray combined incongruous objects, asking the viewer to make sense of the result. In tune with Duchamp, Man Ray was also a master of the Readymade, elevating ordinary objects as art. He channeled his agony over Lee Miller's departure into a life of productive creativity, often lovingly and cleverly referring to her via coded motifs.

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The Ultimate Surrealist Object: Two People Inescapably Drawn to Each Other

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