The Ultimate Surrealist Object: Two People Inescapably Drawn to Each Other

The Anti-Muse
Lee Lee Miller started her career as a fashion model, the ultimate 'it-girl' of 1920s America. With the encouragement of Edward Steichen for whom she was a favorite subject, she moved behind the camera and sought out Man Ray as a teacher. She quickly gained mastery of darkroom and camera techniques to become a photographer with her own vision to impart. So completely did she absorb Man Ray's instruction that for a time, Miller persuaded Ray to let her take on their photography projects enabling him to devote more time to painting and other media. Their collaboration resulted in technical innovations such as the effect of solarization and the coalescence of the surrealist idiom. Working in tandem and separately, Ray tended more to the studio and she took to the streets. After she and Ray parted, she remained a photographer for two decades, including a seminal period as World War II war correspondent for Condé Nast. A first-hand witness to some of the worst atrocities of her time, she suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder that later hampered her productivity. Her works are rarely seen outside the UK.

Lee Miller's photographs as well as the work of many of the other Surrealist artists in this exhibition appear courtesy of the Lee Miller Archives housed at Farley Farm House in Chiddingly, England. Farley Farm House is the family estate of Lee Miller and Roland Penrose, and was a regular stop for some of the world's most important modern artists including those represented in this exhibition.

Future Venues
Montclair Art Museum | February 11 through May 20, 2012
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco | July 14 though October 14, 2012

Exhibition Catalogue

Man Ray / Lee Miller: Partners in Surrealism by Phillip Prodger with contributions by Lynda Roscoe Hartigan and Antony Penrose. Merrell, 2011. Featuring a candid and poignant contribution from Antony Penrose, the son of Miller and the English painter Roland Penrose, on the relationship between Man Ray and his parents in later years, this is an extraordinary exploration of the love, lust, and desire that drove the art of the Surrealists, and of a volatile love affair that helped to shape the course of modern art.

Image Credits
A l'heure de l'observatoire - les amoureux (Observatory Time - The Lovers), 1964, after canvas of c. 1931; Man Ray (1890-1976); Color photograph; 19 ⅝ x 48 ¾ in. (50 x 124 cm); The Israel Museum, Jerusalem. © 2010 Man Ray Trust/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris/ Photo © The Israel Museum by Avshalom Avital.

Solarized Portrait of Lee Miller, c. 1930; Man Ray (1890-1976); Gelatin silver print; 9 ½ x 7 ⅜ in. (24.3 x 18.8 cm); The Roland Penrose Collection, England; © 2010 Man Ray Trust/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris/Courtesy of The Penrose Collection. All rights reserved.

Editor's Note: Also consult the Lee Miller archive:

"Lee Miller produced some of the most powerful photographs seen this century, from portraits of her friends such as Pablo Picasso, to her work as a correspondent with the US army in World War II. Beginning her own studio in Paris with artist Man Ray, she went on to work with Vogue, and in France, Egypt, and New York, being best remembered for her witty Surrealist images."

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The Ultimate Surrealist Object: Two People Inescapably Drawn to Each Other

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