* NEW YORK TIMES, 100 NOTABLE BOOKS OF THE YEAR * NEW YORKER, ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR * AMERICAN LIBRARY IN PARIS BOOK AWARD, LONG LIST
Exuberantly entertaining. –New York Times
[A] heady romp through the galleries and nightclubs of interwar France. –Vogue
Exquisitely crafted. -Wall Street Journal
Mark Braude’s writing and subject make this book irresistible, as was Kiki herself. —Jim Jarmusch
[A] splendid new biography. -Associated Press
In freewheeling 1920s Paris, Kiki de Montparnasse captivated as a nightclub performer, sold out gallery showings of her paintings, starred in Surrealist films, and shared drinks and ideas with the likes of Jean Cocteau and Marcel Duchamp. Her best-selling memoir—featuring an introduction by Ernest Hemingway—made front-page news in France and was immediately banned in America. All before she turned 30.
Kiki was once the symbol of bohemian Paris. But if she is remembered today, it is only for posing for several now-celebrated male artists, including Modigliani and Calder, but especially for Man Ray. Why has Man Ray’s legacy endured while Kiki has become a footnote?
Kiki and Man Ray met in 1921 during a chance encounter at a café. What followed was an explosive decade-long connection, both professional and romantic, during which the couple grew and experimented as artists, competed for fame, and created many of the shocking images that cemented Man Ray’s reputation as one of the great artists of the modern era. The works they made together, including the Surrealist icons Le Violon d’Ingres and Noire et blanche, now set records at auctions.
Charting their volatile relationship, historian Mark Braude illuminates for the first time Kiki’s seminal influence not only on Man Ray’s art, but on the culture of 1920s Paris and beyond. As provocative and magnetically irresistible as Kiki herself, Kiki Man Ray is the story of an exceptional life that will challenge ideas about artists and muses—and the lines separating the two.
MARK BRAUDE is the author of three books of nonfiction, most recently Kiki Man Ray: Art, Love, and Rivalry in 1920s Paris, a New York Times Notable Book of 2022 and a New Yorker Best Book of the Year. He has been a Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford University, a Visiting Fellow at the American Library in Paris, and an NEH Public Scholar. He has written for The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The New Republic, and other publications. His books have been translated into seven languages. He lives in Vancouver with his wife and their two daughters.
Hear Mark being interviewed by The New York Times Book Review here.
