The Metropolitan Museum of Art is opening "When Objects Dream," the first exhibition to examine Man Ray's rayographs in the context of his broader oeuvre. Opening September 14, the show features over 60 rayographs alongside 100 paintings, objects, drawings, and films spanning the artist's career. The exhibition is supported by the haute couture house Schiaparelli, whose founder Elsa Schiaparelli was a close friend and collaborator of Ray's, both central figures in the 1920s Parisian avant-garde.
This exhibition matters because it positions Man Ray's cameraless photography—accidentally invented in 1921—as a key innovation linking Surrealism, fashion, and modern art. By contextualizing the rayographs within his full practice and highlighting his collaboration with Schiaparelli, the show underscores how both figures blurred boundaries between art and fashion, influencing how people present themselves and revealing unconscious desires. It also marks a rare institutional focus on a technique that transformed everyday objects into spectral, dreamlike images.