ARTFEED — Contemporary Art Intelligence

Vienna's Kunstforum Mounts Comprehensive Man Ray Retrospective

exhibition · 2026-05-04

The Kunstforum Wien presents 'Man Ray,' a major retrospective featuring over 200 works from international institutions including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and the Tate in London. Curated by Lisa Ortner-Kreil, the exhibition spans the artist's entire career, from his early, little-known technical-abstract studies and Fauvist/Cubist paintings from his time in the Ridgefield artist colony to his Paris years, where he became a successful photographer capturing figures like Picasso, Dora Maar, Virginia Woolf, and Coco Chanel, and working for Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue. The show highlights his transmedial nature, including rayographs, solarizations (accidentally invented with Lee Miller), films, and iconic objects like 'Indestructible Object' (a metronome with an eye). It also covers his return to painting in the late 1930s, his exile in California during WWII, and his later pop culture influence, such as the Depeche Mode video 'Barrel of a Gun' and a Jean Paul Gaultier perfume ad. The exhibition runs until June 24, 2018.

Key facts

  • Over 200 works from MoMA, Centre Pompidou, and Tate
  • Curated by Lisa Ortner-Kreil at Kunstforum Wien
  • Includes early Ridgefield works influenced by Fauvism and Cubism
  • Highlights rayographs and solarization invented with Lee Miller
  • Features portraits of Picasso, Dora Maar, Virginia Woolf, Coco Chanel
  • Commissioned by Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue
  • Shows 'Indestructible Object' and films like 'Le Mystère du Château du Dé'
  • Exhibition runs until June 24, 2018

Entities

Artists

Institutions

Locations

  • Vienna
  • Austria
  • New York
  • United States
  • Paris
  • France
  • Ridgefield
  • California
  • London
  • United Kingdom
  • Philadelphia

Sources