September 10, 2010 — Matthew Affron will give a tour of the University of Virginia Art Museum's exhibition, "Man Ray, African Art, and the Modernist Lens," on Sept. 25 from 2 to 3 p.m. 

Organized by International Arts and Artists, "Man Ray, African Art, and the Modernist Lens" presents photographs of African objects by the American artist Man Ray and his international avant-garde contemporaries in the 1920s and 1930s. In addition to providing fresh insight into Man Ray's photographic practice, the exhibition raises questions concerning the representation, reception and perception of African art as mediated by the camera lens.

Affron is an associate professor in U.Va.'s McIntire Department of Art and curator of modern art at the museum. Most recently, he co-curated the exhibition, "Matisse, Picasso, and Modern Art in Paris," which opened at the U.Va. Art Museum in January 2009 and subsequently traveled to three other venues in the state.

Affron will present an overview of the key themes and works in the exhibition, discussing what innovative photographers saw in these African artifacts and what the images tell us about the modern European and American fascination with the arts of Africa. Works by Man Ray will be discussed in detail, along with images by other early 20th-century photographers active in France and America, including Alfred Stieglitz, Walker Evans, Carl Van Vechten and the surrealists Raoul Ubac and Maurice Tabard.

The U.Va. Art Museum offers its Saturday Special Tours on the third or fourth Saturday of every month from 2 to 3 p.m. The tours offer the opportunity to join faculty, curators and scholars as they explore a variety of focused topics related to museum collections and exhibitions.

Saturday Special Tours are free and open to the public. For information, call 434-243-2050 or e-mail museumoutreach@virginia.edu. The museum is located at 155 Rugby Road, one block from the Rotunda.