PARIS, JEWS AND SURREALISM - MARK BRAUDE / Kiki Man Ray

ART & HISTORY: PARIS, JEWS AND SURREALISM

MARK BRAUDE / Kiki Man Ray: Art, Love and Rivalry in 1920s Paris
In conversation with Chris Friedrichs

In freewheeling 1920s Paris, Kiki de Montparnasse captivated as a nightclub performer, sold out gallery showings of her paintings, starred in Surrealist films, and shared drinks and ideas with the likes of Jean Cocteau and Marcel Duchamp. Her best-selling memoir– 
featuring an introduction by Ernest Hemingway– made front-page news in France and was immediately banned in America. All that before she turned 30.
Kiki was once the symbol of bohemian Paris. But if she is remembered today, it is only for posing for several now-celebrated male artists, including Modigliani, Calder and photographer Man Ray.
Kiki Man Ray charts the volatile relationship between the French star of her time Kiki and the American photographer Man Ray (born Emmanuel “Manny” Radnitzky, the son of Russian-Jewish immigrants, and raised in Brooklyn).
Kiki and Man Ray met at a Parisian café in 1921. What followed was an explosive decade-long connection, both professional and romantic, during which the couple grew and experimented as artists, competed for fame, and created many of the shocking images that cemented Man Ray’s reputation as one of the great artists of modern era. Award-winning historian Mark Braude illuminates Kiki’s seminal influence on Man Ray’s art, and on the culture of 1920s Paris and beyond.
MARK BRAUDE is the author of The Invisible Emperor and Making Monte Carlo whose books have been translated into seven languages. Mark has been a visiting fellow at the American Library in Paris, a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford, and an NEH Public Scholar.

CHRIS FRIEDRICHS is Professor Emeritus of History at UBC.

SPONSORED BY JULIE and MICHAEL SEELIG