Man Ray (1890-1976), a founding father of Dada and a key player in French Surrealism, is one of the central artists of the 20th century. He is also one of the most elusive. In this new biography, journalist and critic Arthur Lubow uses Man Ray’s Jewish background as one filter to understand his life and art.

Man Ray began life as Emmanuel Radnitsky, the eldest of four children born in Philadelphia to a mother from Minsk and a father from Kiev. When he was seven the family moved to the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, where both parents worked as tailors. Defying his parents’ expectations that he earn a university degree, Man Ray instead pursued his vocation as an artist, embracing the modernist creed of photographer and avant-garde gallery owner Alfred Stieglitz.

When at the age of 30 Man Ray relocated to Paris, he, unlike Stieglitz, made a clean break with his past.

The book is published by Yale University Press. The audiobook is published by University Press Audiobooks.

“Ingeniously captures one of the twentieth century’s most enigmatic artists.” (New Yorker)

“Lubow’s evocation of Man Ray is full of insights, often dramatic....”(David D’Arcy, Art Newspaper)

“With charm and élan—and heroic erudition—Arthur Lubow captures the elusive, protean Man Ray.” (Benjamin Taylor, author of Proust: The Search)