Man Ray (1890-1976) has long been considered one of the most versatile and innovative artists of the twentieth century. As a painter, writer, sculptor, photographer, and filmmaker, he is best known for his intimate association with the French Surrealist group in Paris during the 1920s and 1930s, particularly for his highly inventive and unconventional photographic images. These remarkable accomplishments, however, have tended to overshadow the importance of his earlier work-significant not only for comprehending Man Ray's future artistic development, but also for fleshing out our understanding of the visual arts in America during one of the most important and crucial phases of modernism's evolution.

The book, and the exhibition for which it will serves as the catalogue, concentrate on Man Ray's production from 1907 to 1917. Conversion to Modernism is the first comprehensive, fully illustrated work to examine this artist's seminal years, beginning with his high school years in Brooklyn, his studies at the Art Students League and the National Academy of Design in New York, and the time he spent in life drawing classes at the more progressive Ferrer Center.

From 1913 to 1915, Man Ray lived in a small artists' colony in Grantwood, New Jersey. It was here, studying with Samuel Halpert (a former student of Matisse), that he began to become the artist we know today. Throughout this period, Man Ray's work developed methodically, in a gradual but certain evolution to abstraction. This progression culminated in 1916 with the publication of a remarkably early and important formalist tract, wherein the flat planar surface is established as a common vehicle of expression for all the arts: music, literature, dance, architecture, sculpture, and painting. The last section of the book includes recently discovered photographs and other works influenced by the emergent Dada movement. Here is Man Ray in recognizable form just before he leaves the country for France in 1921.

Francis M. Naumann is the author of numerous articles and exhibition catalogues, including New York Dada 1915-25 and Marcel Duchamp: The Art of Making Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. Gail Stavitsky is chief curator at the Montclair Art Museum, where she has written many exhibition catalogs, including Will Barnet: A Timeless World (Rutgers).

"Known as a glamorous and nearly legendary pioneer of Manhattan modernism, a Paris sophisticate and high-style innovator in photography, an alluring Hollywood art world émigré in the 1940s, Man Ray has seldom been thought of as a New Jersey artist. Yet, the Garden State played a pivotal role in his shift from an academic to an avant-garde artist. His Ridgefield respite and the surprisingly lively artists' camaraderie there remind us that country, no less than city, is vital to even the most forward-thinking artistic figures."