Man Ray, African Art, and the Modernist Lens

IA&A Design Studio created this 183-page book for the exhibition, Man Ray, African Art, and the Modernist Lens. Meticulously researched and compellingly presented, the book and the exhibition it accompanies raise thought-provoking questions about how photographs of African objects have shaped our ideas about African art and, in turn, how these images contributed to multiple Modernist viewpoints.

The groundbreaking exhibition featured the photographs of American artist Man Ray (1890-1976), whose work translated the vogue for African art into a modernist aesthetic and disseminated this idea to a popular audience. This exhibition explored a little-examined chapter in the development of modernist artistic practice; namely, the significant role photography played in the process by which African objects—formerly considered ethnographic curiosities—came to be perceived as the stuff of modern art in the first decades of the 20th century.

Along with the exhibition and catalogue we created exhibition wall graphics, invitations and educational packets.