Latest news with #ManRay
The Guardian
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
UK's largest Lee Miller retrospective to be held at Tate Britain
The UK's largest retrospective of the American photographer and photojournalist Lee Miller, who produced some of the most renowned images of the modern era, will take place at Tate Britain this autumn. The exhibition will showcase the entirety of Miller's career, from her participation in French surrealism to her fashion and war photography. It will also explore her artistic collaborations and lesser-known sides of her practice, such as her images of the Egyptian landscape in the 1930s. The retrospective will feature about 250 vintage and modern prints, including those never previously displayed, revealing 'Miller's poetic vision and fearless spirit', according to the Tate. Born in 1907 in Poughkeepsie, New York state, Miller was first exposed to a camera by working as a model in the late 1920s, when she was photographed by celebrated figures such as Cecil Beaton and Edward Steichen. This inspired her to pursue photography and she quickly became a leading figure of the avant garde. It was after moving to Paris in 1929 that Miller began working with the visual artist Man Ray, becoming his student, muse and lover. Together they discovered solarisation, a photographic technique in which reversed halo-like effects are created through exposure to light during processing. In the early 1930s, Miller turned her lens to the streets of Paris, creating a series of photographs capturing the surreal in the everyday. Through crops, disorienting angles and reflections, she reimagined familiar Parisian sights ranging from Notre Dame Cathedral to a Guerlain perfume shop window. When she moved to London in 1939 at the outbreak of the second world war, Miller embarked on a new career in photojournalism, becoming the official war photographer for British Vogue and one of the few accredited female war correspondents. The exhibition will showcase her depictions of blitz-torn London, including You will not lunch in Charlotte Street today (1940) and Fire Masks (1941), which capture the pathos and absurdity of the city in wartime. Also on display will be her photographs of women's contributions on the home front, harrowing scenes from the frontline, the liberation of Paris, and the devastation and deprivation of the Buchenwald and Dachau concentration camps. These works will be presented in dialogue with extracts from Miller's first-person essays, which were published in British and American Vogue. The show will include the portraits of Miller and David E Scherman in Hitler's private bath in April 1945, which were staged directly after the pair returned from photographing Dachau, and are considered to be some of the most extraordinary images of the 20th century. Miller posed for the photos with the dried mud of that morning's visit to the camp on her boots deliberately dirtying Hitler's bathroom. Miller's work and life have been depicted numerous times, including in the 2005 musical Six Pictures of Lee Miller and the 2023 film Lee, in which Kate Winslet played Miller. She was also referenced as role model for the war photographer depicted by Kirsten Dunst in the 2024 film Civil War. The exhibition will run from 2 October 2025 to 15 February 2026.
South China Morning Post
26-03-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
Architectural jewellery? Artists are transforming aspects of sculpture and ancient artefacts into innovative modern pieces, from Faith Hilda and Cindy Chao to Bibi van der Velden and Greek brand YSSO
From surrealist artist Man Ray's Lampshade earrings, worn in the 60s by French actress Catherine Deneuve, to his collaborations in the 70s with Italian jeweller Gem Montebello – and from sculptor Alexander Calder's masterfully absurd jewellery creations, worn by the likes of Simone de Beauvoir, Georgia O'Keeffe and Peggy Guggenheim, to feminist artist Niki de Saint Phalle's ruminations on the body with her colourful brooches – artists have long turned to jewellery as a medium for creativity and self-expression. Salvador Dalí started designing jewellery in 1941 – notably diamond-dipped eyeball brooches, and a bejewelled mouth with pearl teeth and ruby lips, in a collaboration with the surrealist couturier Elsa Schiaparelli. In a 1959 introduction to a catalogue, he wrote: 'My art encompasses physics, mathematics, architecture, nuclear science – the psycho-nuclear, the mystico-nuclear – and jewellery – not paint alone.' Even Pablo Picasso dabbled in jewellery, making such things as shell necklaces for his partner and fellow artist Dora Maar, and goldsmithing in the 60s. His daughter Paloma Picasso is famously one of Tiffany & Co.'s most iconic jewellery designers. Advertisement It makes sense when you consider how an artist, a sculptor, an architect and even an archaeologist might have a different perspective – a new way of seeing shape, colour and line, and of thinking about what makes something precious. Below, meet four jewellers of today who've found a way to use a background in other creative disciplines in their designs. Faith Jewels Faith Hilda, founder of Faith Jewels, sketching. Photo: Handout Melbourne-based jeweller Faith Hilda, founder of Faith Jewels, first trained as an architect. She draws each piece and tends to think of them first as 'houses'. 'I approach each sketch as if I were creating architectural drawings – top, front and side elevations – to ensure the design works from every angle,' she says. 'This process allows me to visualise how the piece interacts with the wearer, just as a house interacts with its environment. Because of my spatial training, I can bring my vision to life in real time, sketching alongside my clients and turning their stories into tangible designs.' Hilda adds that architecture is the foundation of her design philosophy. 'It has taught me to see the world in layers of light, shadow, form and space – all of which play a central role in my jewellery designs,' she says. 'I take inspiration from architectural elements like domes, skylines and geometric forms, reinterpreting them into jewellery.'
