The National Portrait Gallery’s Man Ray Exhibition 2013 – London’s art scene at its most compelling

Being one of the most artistically innovative cities in the world, London is certainly no stranger to hosting some truly dynamic art exhibitions and events. 2013 looks set to be an especially exciting year for London’s art scene, with the likes of the Man Ray Exhibition 2013 taking central stage.

This incredible artist’s work is on display in London at the National Portrait Gallery from February until May 2013.

Man Ray was an American modernist stroke surrealist who lived and worked in France for the greater part of his life. During the early part of his career, this influential artist painted in the surrealist style, later emerging as a talented and innovative photographer. Man Ray explored many different types of art, but it was his photography which stood out as being particularly exceptional.

Born Emmanuel Radnitzky in 1890, Man Ray’s work was not particularly revered in his lifetime, but only since his death has the American artist gain such prominence and high status in the art world.

Man Ray spent the earlier years of his career earning money as an illustrator with several companies in New York. Like many aspiring artists of the time, a young Man Ray found himself drawn into the anti-art Dada movement. At the age of thirty, Man Ray moved to Paris, where he was involved in a surrealist exhibition featuring Pablo Picasso. For the next twenty years Man Ray concentrated on experimental and avant-garde photography. Always connected with innovative art, the multifarious artist also directed several short films.

Man Ray died in Paris in 1976 aged 86 and was interned in the Cimetiere de Montparnasse, where his epitaph reads: “Unconcerned, but not indifferent”

150 photographs will be on display at the National Portrait Gallery, many of which have never been previously seen in Britain, including a portrait of Pablo Picasso taken by Man Ray in 1922 – Just one of the many special treats in store for you if you visit the Man Ray exhibition.