The Metropolitan Museum of Art has opened one of the season’s most anticipated shows: Man Ray: When Objects Dream, on view from September 2025 through February 2026. The exhibition shines a spotlight on the legendary artist’s rayographs and other experimental photographic works, reaffirming his role as one of the most inventive figures of the 20th century.
Exhibition Dates: September 14, 2025–February 1, 2026
Location: The Met Fifth Avenue, Floor 1, Gallery 199
Reinventing the Image
Man Ray, born Emmanuel Radnitzky in Philadelphia and later based in Paris, revolutionized photography by challenging its very foundations. His rayographs—camera-less images created by placing objects directly on photosensitive paper and exposing them to light—remain startlingly modern. The Met’s show gathers a rare group of these works, alongside related experiments, to demonstrate how Man Ray turned the medium into a space of chance, play, and poetic surprise.
Objects as Dreamscapes
The exhibition explores how everyday objects—combs, coils of wire, bottles, and fabric—become transformed under Man Ray’s process. What begins as the ordinary emerges as surreal silhouettes and glowing abstractions, embodying the Dadaist and Surrealist fascination with the unconscious. In his hands, objects appear to “dream,” dissolving their practical identities and entering the realm of imagination.
A Broader Vision
Beyond the rayographs, the show also includes photograms, solarizations, and hybrid works that blur boundaries between photography, drawing, and sculpture. Together, they underline Man Ray’s relentless pursuit of innovation and his refusal to treat photography as mere documentation. Instead, he positioned it as a language of its own—capable of invention, accident, and poetry.
Why Now
The timing of this exhibition feels significant. At a moment when image-making is once again being reshaped—this time by digital tools and AI—When Objects Dream reminds viewers of the radical possibilities of experimentation. Just as Man Ray questioned what a photograph could be, artists and audiences today are grappling with what images mean in an era of endless reproduction.
A Rare Opportunity
The Met’s presentation is both historical and urgent. It provides a comprehensive look at Man Ray’s photographic experiments while also speaking to contemporary concerns. For New Yorkers and visitors alike, this exhibition is a chance to see how one artist’s playful imagination transformed the course of photography and opened new pathways for art itself.
Man Ray: When Objects Dream runs through February 2026 at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
