The Bluff Almanach
Volume 1: Man Ray
Films are wonderful countries to be discovered by those free enough to adventure therein. If only the discovery of their tumultuous black-and-white worlds were worth more in terms of happiness of the mind than an unknown land rich in oil.
––Man Ray, “Deceiving Appearances,” Paris-Soir, March 23, 1926, 1
Introductory Note
Looking back over his long career, in 1975 Man Ray told the British photographer Cecil Beaton: “In whatever forms my work is finally presented . . . it is designed to amuse, bewilder, annoy or to inspire reflections, but never to arouse admiration through any technical excellence usually sought for in works of art.”Read moreEnquête
Dada or Surrealism?
Alex Da Corte, Susan Laxton, Mark Polizzotti, and Emily Wells
Just as the lens sacrifices actual space to focus all of that space upon the plate, so the artist must condense the time and space element to create life’s equivalent.
––Man Ray, A Primer of the New Art of Two Dimensions (New York, 1916)
Object Studies
Lessons in the Reconstruction of Kiki de Montparnasse, 1924
Rayograph Experiments
Portraits of Things
The Last Print: Man Ray’s 41st Copy of Champs délicieux and the Question of Cancellation
Essays
Re-spatializing Time
The Afterlives of Man Ray’s Retour à la raison (1923)
Dada Cézanne
“Kind of Photographs”: Man Ray at The Arts Club of Chicago
When the Rayograph Introduced the Avant-Garde to Colonial Korea
Inside Outside
Trans Atlantique: New York, Paris, and the Expatriated Image
From the Archive
The Bluff Collaborative for Research on Dada and Surrealism and The Bluff Almanach are made possible by a major grant from the John Pritzker Family Fund.
VOLUME I: IMAGE CREDITS:
Image 1: Man Ray, L'impossibilité (Dancer, Danger), 1917–20. Airbrush painting on glass in a wooden frame, 27 7/8 x 17 11/16 x 10 13/16 in. (70.8 x 45 x 27.5 cm). Musée national d'art moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris, Gift of Mmes Aube Breton-Elléouët and Oona Elléouët, 2003 (AM 2003-581). ©Man Ray Trust / 2026 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Image 2: Alex Da Corte in The Glass Age (2026). Photo by Stephanie Berger
PARTICIPANTS IN THE BLUFF COLLABORATIVE’S PROGRAM, 2025–26
Bill Brown, Karla Scherer Distinguished Service Professor in American Culture, University of Chicago; Mary Chan, Provenance Researcher and Collections Manager, Modern and Contemporary Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Katharine Conley, Chancellor Professor Emerita of French and Francophone Studies, William and Mary; Neil Cox, Head, Leonard A. Lauder Research Center, The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Alex Da Corte, artist; Isabelle Duvernois, Conservator, Paintings Conservation, The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Emmanuelle de l’Ecotais, independent scholar; Noam M. Elcott, Associate Professor of Art History and Archaeology, Columbia University; Leonard A. Lauder Mid-Career Fellow in Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2025– 26; Tess Hamilton, Assistant Conservator, Photograph Conservation, The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Trajal Harrell, performer and choreographer; Jim Jarmusch, director, writer, musician; Nora Kennedy, Conservator Emerita, former Sherman Fairchild Conservator in Charge of Photograph Conservation, The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Susan Laxton, Associate Professor, Chair of Art History, University of California, Riverside; Carter Logan, producer and musician; Janine Mileaf, Executive Director and Chief Curator, The Arts Club of Chicago; Paul Messier, independent conservator; Francis M. Naumann, independent scholar; Perle Palombe, dancer and performer; Poole Park, graduate student in Korean language and literature, Yonsei University; Pawn Chess Club; Adam Pendelton, artist; Stephen C. Pinson, Alice R. and Sol B. Frank Curator, Photographs, The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Mark Polizzotti, Publisher and Editor in Chief, The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Mallory Roark, Collections Specialist, Modern and Contemporary Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Alison Rossiter, artist; Zacharie Sadoun, art director, Womanray; Katherine Sanderson, Conservator, Photograph Conservation, The Metropolitan Museum of Art; John Schaefer, author and radio host; Adrian Sudhalter, Research Curator, Merrill C. Berman Collection; Songhay Toldon, dancer and performer; Marieke Tricoire, CEO and executive producer, Womanray; Emily Wells, musician and composer.