Stephanie D'Alessandro

The first in-depth study of Man Ray’s groundbreaking rayographs of the 1920s and their interconnections with his Dada and Surrealist works Man Ray (1890–1976) worked in a range of media, but central to his practice was the rayograph, a type of photogram (or camera-less photograph) that he revolutionized and introduced into the Dada and Surrealist milieu of 1920s Paris. Oscillating between representation and abstraction, painting and photography, the rayograph was ambiguous in its making and subject matter, epitomizing avant-garde concerns of the day. This richly illustrated book is the first to look at Man Ray’s work through the lens of his eponymous process, tracing a through line from the rayographs to his paintings, photographs, drawings, objects, and films, and highlighting the interconnections and shared motifs among them. Stephanie D’Alessandro and Stephen C. Pinson analyze Man Ray’s innovative methods while also exploring key themes across his art production, such as chance, indeterminacy, transformation, and the dualities of solid and transparent, shadow and light, form and space, and object and body. Published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Distributed by Yale University Press Exhibition Schedule: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (September 14, 2025–February 1, 2026)

A completely new way of looking at and understanding Surrealism, with a focus on the worldwide sweep of the movement“The variety of discoveries, detailed with exceptional scholarship in a ravishing keeper of a catalogue, defeat generalization.”—Peter Schjeldahl, New Yorker This groundbreaking book challenges conventional narratives of Surrealism, tracing its impact and legacy from the 1920s to the late 1970s in places as diverse as Colombia, Czechoslovakia, Egypt, Japan, Mexico, the Philippines, Romania, Syria, Thailand, and Turkey. In doing so, it presents a more inclusive and accurate understanding of the fundamentally international character and lasting significance of the revolutionary artistic, literary, and philosophical movement. Vibrantly illustrated with more than 300 works of art by both well-known figures—including Dalí, Ernst, Kahlo, Magritte, and Miró—and numerous underrepresented artists, this expansive book pushes beyond the borders of history, geography, and nationality to provocatively redraw the map of the Surrealist movement, investigating how its visual languages, ideals, theories, and practices were framed or reframed in contexts far from its Parisian origins. Contributions from more than 40 distinguished international scholars explore themes such as the channels used to transmit ideas; artists’ responses to the challenges of political oppression, social unrest, and the effects of colonialism; and experiences of displacement and exile in the twentieth century. Published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Distributed by Yale University PressExhibition Schedule:The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (October 4, 2021–January 30, 2022)Tate Modern, London (February 25–August 29, 2022)

A major reassessment of a critical moment in the work of one of the 20th century’s most important artists The works that Henri Matisse (1869–1954) executed between late 1913 and 1917 are among his most demanding, experimental, and enigmatic. Often sharply composed, heavily reworked, and dominated by the colors black and gray, these compositions are rigorously abstracted and purged of nearly all descriptive detail. Although they have typically been treated as unrelated to one another, as aberrations within the artist’s oeuvre, or as singular responses to Cubism or World War I, Matisse: Radical Invention, 1913–1917 reveals the deep connections among them and their critical role in an ambitious, cohesive project that took the act of creation itself as its main focus.This book represents the first sustained examination of Matisse’s output from this important period, revealing fascinating information about his working method, experimental techniques, and compositional choices uncovered through extensive new historical, technical, and scientific research. The lavishly illustrated volume is published to accompany a major exhibition consisting of approximately 125 paintings, sculptures, drawings, and prints. It features in-depth studies of individual works such as Bathers by a River and The Moroccans, which Matisse himself counted as among the most pivotal of his career, and facilitates a greater understanding of the artist’s innovative process and radical stylistic evolution.Distributed for the Art Institute of ChicagoExhibition Schedule:Art Institute of Chicago (March 20 – June 6, 2010)Museum of Modern Art, New York (July 18 – October 11, 2010)

A major retrospective of the work of Lasar Segall, this catalogue explores his changing cultural and artistic identities as demonstrated in over 224 works. Documenting the Diaspora of the Jews and embodying modern notions of exoticism and primitivism in art, Segall's work presents many issues relevant in global culture and politics. Segall is regarded as an influential artist who infused Brazilian modernism with the colour, psychological intensity and spatial distortion characteristic of the German tradition. He later became concerned with a spiritualism rooted in a universal humanism and communion with nature.