Friday, September 26, 2025, 9:30 a.m. – What an extraordinary privilege, thanks to the friendly generosity of Carol Shuster-Polakoff and Phong H. Bui, to bear witness to Man Ray: When Objects Dream, on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art through February 1, 2026. We were walked through by the brilliantly collegial exhibition curators, Stephanie D’Alessandro and Stephen Pinson. After more than four decades living with the spirit of the Dada/Surrealist/bricoleur/magician/imagist, I took the opportunity to tell Stephanie and Stephen that their fresh and deep perspectives taught me more about the artist than I thought I had known. How revelatory to be conceived of as the veteran biographer only to joyfully revisit that concept during an hour navigating the labyrinth of Gallery 199.
I emerged bewitched by the powerful Aura radiating from this chiaroscuro wonderland of rayographs, cliches-verre, paintings, objects constructed and deconstructed, and homages to the female form.
You, too, will be seduced to return often.