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Man Ray, originally known as Emmanuel Radnitzky, was an American visual artist who had a profound impact on the Dada and Surrealist movements of the 20th century. Born in 1890 in Philadelphia, he was the eldest child of Russian Jewish immigrants, who changed their surname to Ray due to prevailing anti-Semitism. Man Ray moved to Brooklyn with his family when he was seven years old and went on to graduate from the Boys' High School, where he learned the fundamentals of drafting, illustration, and painting. Although his parents initially disapproved of his pursuit of art, they eventually supported his ambition by transforming part of their home into his studio.

During his early career, Man Ray experimented with paintings and drawings influenced by 19th century styles, but he was drawn to the avant-garde art he encountered in New York City. In 1921, Man Ray relocated to Paris and became an integral part of the Montparnasse artistic community. He was an innovator in the use of photograms, which he called "rayographs," creating mysterious and surreal images that were highly regarded by fellow Dada artists like Tristan Tzara. During this period, he met and fell in love with Kiki de Montparnasse, a famous artists' model who became a prominent subject in his photography and experimental films. Man Ray's work also expanded to include readymades, ordinary objects he selected and modified, such as his iconic The Gift (1921), a flatiron with metal tacks attached to the bottom.

Man Ray was a pioneering photographer, capturing portraits of important figures like Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí, and Jean Cocteau. He was also known for his painting, sculpture, jewelry design, and filmmaking as well as collaborations with Marcel Duchamp on various projects, including the creation of kinetic art. Man Ray was likewise instrumental in helping to organize the Société Anonyme, a traveling collection considered the first museum of modern art in the United States, which was later donated to Yale University Art Gallery. During World War II, Man Ray returned to the United States and resided in Los Angeles from 1940 to 1951, focusing primarily on painting.

In 1951, Man Ray moved back to Paris and he married Juliet Browner, a trained dancer and artist's model, five years later. Over the next two decades, Man Ray continued to create art across various mediums until his death from a lung infection in 1976. His innovative techniques in photography, filmmaking, and art left an enduring legacy, earning him recognition as one of the most influential artists of the 20th century. Man Ray's work still inspires and captivates art enthusiasts, with some of his photographs achieving record-breaking prices in the art market, such as Le Violon d'Ingres (1924), which became the most expensive photograph ever sold at auction in 2022. Examples of Man Ray's work are now held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC, and other notable institutions.