i'll get started somewhere its not particularly logical to start at. There is a lot more to Man Ray other than Photography. painter, more notably, but what i'm really interested in is his work of Cinema.
less people know this about him, and that is do to one thing and one thing only- time. didn't quite age well, and was only particularly relevant to a world where the technology was as young as it was back in the day.
his works, of film and other things he's associated with, i consider to be quite strange, and most of the internet uses the phrase "avant-garde". avant-garde is kinda a word that can be put on a helluva lot more than what could make sense, and i don't really like that genre-name. maybe i should study it more or something, i dunno. it seems a 'definition' for avantgarde is to just be really really weird, or throw away the rules, or something. in all fairness, when you've been taught rules and laws as opposed to techniques and theories your whole life, like a good deal of high-brow artistés seem to be, the concept of throwing 'rules' into the street may seem like a genius, sophisticated, and intellectual thing to do, but to the rest of us, its something thats no big deal and has been happening our whole artish careers. I bolded that part, maybe someday i'll wrap a more better-wrapped sentence around it er something, only then could it be, yaknow, worth it. . .
anyways, this is bad because it really has nothing to say for a real level of, yaknow, describing it, and 2 things literally on the other side of the universe and have no relation or common fans could be described under the same genre. (?)(punk is in the same vein. in a way, everything relating to art could be described like that, i think)(a silly thing, isn't it, dictionaries and art inhabiting on the same plane) anyways, most likely from my marginally informed notes, Avant-Garde a widely-wrong used genre describer.
Anyways, this 'avant garde' i've heard be more-er-less a synonym for 'surrealism', which is kinda the same thing i think . . . in any event, both words of genre came up on the internet about Man Ray, particularly his films.
Surrealism i understand a little bit better than avant-garde, still not too much.
lots of things, i've noticed, can very rightly be described 'surreal' or makes you feel that way, yet in the long run are not generally considered 'Surrealist'. Clockwork Orange comes to mind, and the last 25 minutes of 2001 a space odyssey. have you ever described the ending of 2001 without in a way using the word surreal? nope. can't be done, not outside of chemistry (that is probably illegal) and whatnot, but that'd be boring and generic descriptions from rebels who think they're awesome. most people who try to use that junk in a taken seriously context should probably be shot. or something i dunno. . .
before i watched Man Ray's films, there was a good many films i saw and said "i feel surreally"
but only one of them i went on the internet and confirmed that it was considered "Surrealism" as a genre. That film is Chan-wook Park's OldBoy. it is FANTASTIC, you really need to watch it. Korean. good.
Man Ray's films are world-regarded to be among-if-not-the FIRST avant garde and/or surrealist films. and, like i said, the impression, purpose, etc. that they leave on is mostly contained in it's own time, where/when i imagine they would be the absolute meaning of 'groundbreaking'
EDIT/UPDATE/FINISHING- 2 weeks later.
ok. the actual assignment now. . .
This Photograph by Emmanuel Radnitzky a.k.a. Man Ray.
in this photograph is a woman, quite naked, with her back to us. she's wrapped in a blanket of sorts over her legs and wearing a turban like thing, or something, with a side of her face shown to us. quite obviously, her curves is shaped like a big Cello or Standup Bass. Man clearly noticed this and added in 2 F-holes on either side of her hips to augment and point out and make obvious this fact.
As for the possible deeper meanings and junk, i think he's drawing a comparison between the beauty of a female body and the beauty of music, or each represents an all encompassing generalization of companionship and a generalization of art, in general, respectively. it may seem an obvious option to choose this photo, and may look like i didn't actually search deep and went with the first
Google Image result for 'man ray', but it was the only one that was really worth grabbing and analyzing and junk like this, or was-so more-so
1 comment:
good on Many Ray - u r funny...and re: the part u bolded and your reaction to the avante garde- yea u have been living in at time where artists all around you have been throwing rules to the wind...Simply Man Ray and the dadaists and the avante garde were some of hte original "rebels" / rule breakers...so it's just cool to get 2 know them and understand them in the context of our own history as we r here on the planet today...i really like reading your rambling writing...
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