December 17, 2009 to May 2, 2010

Man Ray: Unconcerned But Not Indifferent presents drawings, photographs, paintings, and sculpture, as well as personal objects and images, from the collection of the Man Ray Trust, located in Long Island, New York. Although individual items have occasionally been loaned for major exhibitions, the full scope of the Trust’s collection has never been presented. Indeed, since the death of his wife Juliet Man Ray,the collection is housed in vaults in a safe and secure location in Long Island, New York. Although nearly 4000 works have been catalogued and authenticated by the Trust, the collection has remained largely unexamined. Unconcerned But Not Indifferent is the first exhibition to open the vaults to a broad public through the Trust’s agreement to an extensive tour of the collection.

On the death of Man Ray in 1976, the artist’s estate was left in the hands of his wife, who, together with her brothers, formed the Man Ray Trust to oversee and care for it. A part of the estate was entrusted to the French National Museums, while for its American collection the Trust selected a comprehensive overview, including artworks and objects as well as documents and personal effects representing over sixty years of Man Ray’s creative life. The Trust’s collection is unique in its holdings, representing all of the different phases of Man Ray’s work, including little known early works, documents of his private life, sketches for and documentation of major works, as well as innumerable familiar masterpieces. As stated in the June 2002 article on the Trust in ArtNews magazine, the collection is “perfect.” Unconcerned But Not Indifferent will present only works that have been certified as “authentic” by the Trust. It is the first and only large-scale exhibition of Man Ray’s work to make such a claim. The Man Ray Trust holds the full rights to all of Man Ray’s works.

The title of the exhibition, Unconcerned But Not Indifferent, is taken from Man Ray’s epitaph. The exhibition is comprised of over 350 items, and is the first of its kind to place the artwork of Man Ray in relation to the objects and images from which he drew his inspiration: his bowler hat and cane, objects from the shelves of his Rue de Ferou studio in Paris, his collection of erotic photographs, and the objects that he used to create his well known Rayographs. As a result of the extraordinary wealth of material available to it through the Man Ray Trust, Unconcerned But Not Indifferent explores numerous motifs in their development from sketches to fully realized masterworks, and it reveals Man Ray’s occasional use of photographic source material for his paintings and graphic work.

The exhibition will present numerous works from each period of Man Ray’s life. Many of the works to be presented are well known, but some have not been exhibited since Man Ray’s death. In addition, as a result of extensive research of the Trust’s uncatalogued holdings, the exhibition will be the first to present selections from the following previously unknown works:

• photographic plates from Les Mains Libres with crop marks by Man Ray dated 1936 and 37;
• documentary photographs of France dated 1920s;
• one previously unknown document of Marcel Duchamp’s Large Glass;
• contact prints with Man Ray’s crop marks from throughout his career;
• black and white Polaroid prints made in the early 1960s;
• a collection of framed, color transparencies created when Man Ray was experimenting with color photography;
• a collaborative work of Man Ray and Max Ernst comprising four frottages.

The structure of Unconcerned But Not Indifferent follows Man Ray’s four working periods: New York, Paris, Los Angeles, Paris. The opening sequence, New York, will present a selection of copy prints of Man Ray’s personal index-card files which he used to document his early works. These files, the originals of which were stolen from Man Ray’s studio after his death and have not been recovered, have been the subject of considerable controversy. They have recently been given to the Pompidou Museum in a joint donation by Marcel Fleiss and the Man Ray Trust.

Unconcerned But Not Indifferent will also present Man Ray’s documentation of his own and other artists’ works, including Duchamp, Picasso, Miro, and Leger, as well as a small book made by Man Ray of the work of Rousseau. It was through this work that Man Ray first learned photography and entered into the Paris art world in the 1920s. As above, these works are largely unknown. In addition, the exhibition will present documents used as source material by Man Ray for his painted and printed works, and artist’s proofs with Man Ray’s notes to himself and his printers. These, too, have never been exhibited and will be presented in relation to the finished pieces to which they refer.

Lastly, the collection of the Man Ray Trust is rich with objects that belonged to Man Ray, such as his bowler hat, rings, briefcase, and cane, as well as a selection of jewelry and objects made for his wife Juliette. Other personal documents include private letters, drawings, and manuscripts, including two early drafts of Man Ray’s autobiography, a formula for photographic chemistry, and a patent application for a magnetic chess set. Presenting these objects and documents in relation to Man Ray’s well known works, as well as works that have never been previously exhibited and a selection of invaluable source material, will create a lively exhibition that offers a new view of his life and artistic production.

By placing Man Ray’s artwork in relation to his tools, his documents, and the objects and images from which he drew his inspiration, Unconcerned But Not Indifferent creates a distinctive context for the experience and appreciation of his wide-ranging creative production. In this way, too, Unconcerned But Not Indifferent provides audiences with a broader knowledge the art of Man Ray, as well as a deeper insight into his life, his thinking, and his creative working process.

Noriko Fuku is a Japanese independent curator living in the United States and Japan. After graduating from the Masters Program at Columbia University in New York, she curated many exhibitions introducing American art to Japan and vice versa, including retrospectives of Cindy Sherman, Robert Mapplethorpe, and Keith Haring. She also curated exhibitions by Lisette Model, Nan Goldin, Philip-Lorca diCorcia, David Byrne, Catheine Opie, and Nobuyoshi Araki, Naoya Hatakeyama among others. She was a guest curator at Photo España for two years and has served on many juries, including the Polaroid Award and ICP Infinity Award. Currently she is a professor at Kyoto University of Arts and Design.

John Jacob began his career as an artist and independent curator. During the 1980s, Jacob worked extensively in Eastern Europe and the former USSR, and guest-curated a series of exhibitions of "unofficial" art for institutions in the United States and Europe. In 1992, he became director of exhibitions for the Photographic Resource Center (PRC) at Boston University, and in '93 was named the museum's executive director. In 2001, Jacob launched the Photography Curators Resource, an internet-based service for museum professionals working with photography, and from 2001 to '04 he was adjunct professor of fine arts at the College of the Atlantic, Bar Harbor, ME. Since 2003, he has been director of the Inge MorathFoundation in New York City. Jacob has curated exhibitions for institutions in the United State, Europe, and Asia, and has published extensively on a variety of subjects.