From November 13, 2026 , to January 31, 2027 , Palazzo Roverella in Rovigo will host “Man Ray: The Master of Surrealism,” a solo exhibition dedicated to one of the leading figures in 20th-century photography. The exhibition kicks off the new 2027–2028 exhibition cycle presented by the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Padova e Rovigo and is part of the museum’s program, which in the coming years will include exhibitions dedicated to art, photography, and history, featuring international partnerships.
Curated by Pierre-Yves Butzbach and Robert Rocca, the exhibition is sponsored by the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Padova e Rovigo together with the Municipality of Rovigo and the Accademia dei Concordi, with support from Intesa Sanpaolo and produced by Silvana Editoriale. The project directly involves the Man Ray Trust in New York and the Photothèque Man Ray in Paris, ensuring that the selection of works adheres to conservation and scholarly standards. The curators are also specialists in the artist’s work and offer a contemporary interpretation of his body of work.
The exhibition brings together approximately three hundred works, including original photographs, drawings, lithographs, objects, and historical documents. A significant portion of the photographic collection consists of vintage prints produced during the years the photographs were taken or under Man Ray’s direct supervision. Of particular note are the original prints from the Musée Nicéphore Niépce in Chalon-sur-Saône, considered a testament to the darkroom work through which the artist helped reshape the photographic language of the 20th century.
Born Emmanuel Radnitsky, Man Ray was a painter, filmmaker, designer, and photographer. His pseudonym combines references to the human element and to a ray of light. After his early experiences in the American avant-garde, the artist developed his artistic practice within the Parisian Surrealist circle, working alongside Marcel Duchamp. The exhibition focuses primarily on his photographic experiments, ranging from rayographs—created without the use of a lens—to solarizations developed in collaboration with Lee Miller.
The exhibition thus explores some of the key themes in Man Ray’s work: identity and ambiguity in his self-portraits, portraits of the intellectuals of his time, and the representation of the female body, ranging from nudes to photographs created for high fashion. Also on display are his three-dimensional experiments and Dadaist-inspired ready-mades. The project also includes the complete screening of the four avant-garde short films created by the artist.
The exhibition is complemented by a catalog published by Silvana Editoriale, edited by Butzbach and Rocca, with critical essays by Raffaella Perna.
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| A major exhibition dedicated to Man Ray is on view in Rovigo: about 300 works at Palazzo Roverella |
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