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The Arts Intel Report

Seeing is Believing: Lee Miller and Friends

Man Ray, Lee Miller, 1930.

Nov 11 – Dec 22, 2023
980 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10075

In the 1920s, Lee Miller was working as a model for American Vogue, in New York City. Then came Paris, her apprenticeship in photography with Man Ray, and their love affair. In 1934, Miller married the Egyptian businessman Aziz Eloui Bey and moved to Egypt. She took some great photographs during her time there, including one of the Siwa desert that inspired Magritte’s 1938 painting Le Baiser, but soon grew restless. When Miller returned to Paris, in 1937, she met the English surrealist painter and curator Roland Penrose, and again fell in love. They would stay together for the rest of their lives, finally settling in East Sussex, in 1949. This exhibition examines their long and productive relationship. Along with paintings, sculptures, and photographs by the couple, there is work by contemporaries Max Ernst, Dora Maar, Man Ray, Pablo Picasso, and many more. —Elena Clavarino

Photo courtesy the artist and Gagosian/© Man Ray 2015 Trust/Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY/ADAGP, Paris 2023