This groundbreaking analysis spotlights a select group of Man Ray’s photographs within the context of modernist photographic history and the “discovery” of African art by the early twentieth-century avant-garde. Featuring more than seventy photographs by Man Ray—some never before reproduced—alongside many rarely seen photographs of African art by his European and American contemporaries.

"Exhibition dates: The Phillips Collection, Oct. 10, 2009-Jan. 10, 2010; University of New Mexico Art Museum, Feb. 6-May 30, 2010; University of Virginia Museum of Art, Aug. 7-Oct. 10, 2010; University of British Columbia, Museum of Anthropology Oct. 29, 2010-Jan. 23, 2011." --T.p. verso.

African art between the modern and the "primitive" -- African art "American style" -- Between art and document : African art in the age of mechanical reproduction -- From Dada to surrealism and beyond -- The poetics and politics of surrealism -- Out of phantom Africa : Michel Leiris, Man Ray and Dogon / Ian Walker -- Fashioning a popular reception.