Kiki Man Ray2022
Art, Love, and Rivalry in 1920s Paris
by Mark Braude
One of The New Yorker’s Best Books of 2022 One of The New York Times' 100 Notable Books of 2022 One of ArtNet's Art Books They Couldn’t Put Down in 2022 One of Harper Bazaar’s Top 100 in 2022
A dazzling portrait of Paris’s forgotten artist and cabaret star, whose incandescent life asks us to see the history of modern art in new ways.
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 thirty.
Kiki was once the symbol of bohemian Paris. But if...