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NUORO, ITALY - The Man Ray: Unconcerned But Not Indifferent exhibition comprises drawings, photos, paintings and sculptures from the Man Ray Trust collection in Long Island, New York. The Man Ray Trust collection has never gone on show before. In juxtaposing Man Ray’s artistic works, tools, documents, objects and pictures which gave the artist his inspiration, the exhibition creates a distinctive setting allowing visitors to experience and enjoy his wide-ranging artistic work. Man Ray (August 27, 1890–November 18, 1976) was an American Dada and Surrealist artist.
The Man Ray Trust collection
After his death in 1976 Man Ray’s estate passed into the hands of his wife, Juliet, who was joined by her brothers in setting up the Man Ray Trust to preserve and promote the artist’s legacy. Part of the estate was donated to the French national museums, while the trust selected artworks, objects, documents and personal items for the American collection designed to provide a comprehensive overview of Man Ray’s creative period spanning over 60 years.
 The trust has so far catalogued over 2,000 works and confirmed their authenticity. However, research work into all the facets of the collection has not yet been completed. Man Ray: Unconcerned But Not Indifferent is the first exhibition to provide a comprehensive insight into the collection. The unique feature of the trust’s collection is that it encompasses items from all Man Ray’s creative periods, including little-known early works, documents from his private life, sketches for large-scale works and their documentation as well as numerous masterpieces. As was stated in an article about the trust in the magazine ArtNews in June 2002, the collection is “perfect”.
Born Emmanuel Radnitzky in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Man Ray showed evidence of being artistically and mechanically inclined from childhood. After graduating from Boys' High School in 1908, he was offered a scholarship to study architecture but chose to pursue a career as an artist instead. In 1911, the Radnitzky family changed their surname to Ray, a name selected by Man Ray's younger brother Sam, in reaction to the ethnic discrimination and anti-semitism prevalent at that time. Emmanuel, who was called "Manny" as a nickname, thereafter used the single name Man Ray.
In 1915, Man Ray had his first one-man show of paintings and drawings. His first proto-Dada object, an assemblage titled "Self-Portrait", was exhibited the following year. He produced his first significant photographs in 1918.
While living in New York City, with his friend Marcel Duchamp, he formed the American branch of the Dada movement, which began in Europe as a radical rejection of traditional art. He co-founded the group of modern artists called Others.
After a few unsuccessful experiments, and notably after the publication of a unique issue of New York Dada in 1920, Man Ray stated, "Dada cannot live in New York", and in 1921 he went to live and work in the Montparnasse quarter of Paris, France during the era of great creativity. There he fell in love with famous French singer, Kiki (Alice Prin), often referred to as "Kiki de Montparnasse", who later became one of his favorite photographic models.
For the next 20 years in Montparnasse, Man Ray revolutionized the art of photography. Great artists of the day such as James Joyce, Gertrude Stein, and Jean Cocteau posed for his camera.
With Jean Arp, Max Ernst, André Masson, Joan Miró, and Pablo Picasso, Man Ray was represented in the first Surrealist exhibition at the Gallerie Pierre in Paris in 1925.
 In 1934, Surrealist artist Méret Oppenheim, known for her fur-covered tea cup, posed for Man Ray in what became a well-known series of photographs depicting Oppenheim nude, standing next to a printing press.
Together with Surrealist photographer Lee Miller—photography assistant at the time—Man Ray invented the photographic technique of solarization. He also created a technique using photograms he called rayographs.
Man Ray also directed a number of influential avant-garde short films, such as Le Retour à la Raison (2 mins, 1923); Emak-Bakia (16 mins, 1926); L'Étoile de Mer (15 mins., 1928); and Les Mystéres du Château du Dé (20 mins, 1929).
Paris (1951 – 1976)
Back in Paris, the 1950s were a period of renewed productivity for Man Ray. Although he declared himself finished with photography, Man Ray continued to make portraits, and experimented with color and instant photography. Throughout the 1950s and ‘60s, Man Ray continued to sketch, favoring ink on paper, and to paint. The acclaim for which Man Ray had worked so hard arrived with the award of a gold medal at the Venice Biennale in 1961, a retrospective at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1966, and the inclusion of his work in the landmark exhibition Dada, Surrealism, and their Heritage at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, in 1968. He was awarded the Order of Artistic Merit by the French government in 1976. With his late success creating a greater market for his works, Man Ray began to extensively reproduce his early paintings as lithographs, and to create multiples of his unique objects.
In the 1970s, in spite of his crippling arthritis, Man Ray insisted on a daily routine of work in his studio. In November, 1976, complaining of shortness of breath and feebleness, Man Ray was taken to a private clinic. On November 18th, Man Ray died in his home with Juliet at his side. He was buried in the Cimetiére du Montparnasse. On the 10th anniversary of his death, Juliet had a monument erected, beneath which she would later be buried beside Man Ray. On his gravestone she wrote, “Unconcerned but not indifferent – Man Ray – 1890–1976 – love Juliet.” On her own gravestone, accompanying a photograph of Man Ray and Juliet, are the words “Juliet Man Ray – 1911–1991 – Together Again.”
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