"With ""homage and outrage"": Man Ray and the dangerous woman"

One of the most striking aspects of Man Ray's oeuvre is the artist's fascination with the unmediated female presence and his need to manipulate and control its image. To him, male and female interaction meant conflict and confrontation, and he often used game metaphors and Sadian imagery to express this world view. Because of early traumatic episodes, with both his mother and his peers, Man Ray developed a deficient self-image and a narcissistic personality. He believed that his mother had denied him his artistic and sexual freedom, and he sought retribution from the other women in his life. They were surrogates of his mother from whom, in turn, he could wrest creative initiative. Many of his major works (Coat Rack, Le Cadeau, L'Objet a detruire, A l'heure de l'observatoire--Les Amoureux and others) are explicit or implicit expressions of either the terrifying female (as vagina dentata) or the ideal female (bound in some way).

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Art History

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2011

Author dc:creator

• Schrock, Peggy Elaine

Contributors dc:contributor

• Fineberg, Jonathan

• Art History
• Psychology, Social
• Women's Studies

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 1992 Schrock, Peggy Elaine

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

AAI9236588
(UMI)AAI9236588

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/20072