One of The New Yorker's Best Books of 2022
One of The New York Time's 100 Notable Books of 2022
One of Art News's Art Books They Couldn't Put Down 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 she is remembered today, it is only for posing for several now-celebrated male artists, including Amedeo Modigliani and Alexander Calder, and especially photographer Man Ray. Why has Man Ray's legacy endured while Kiki has become a footnote?

Kiki and Man Ray met in 1921 during a chance encounter at a café. What followed was an explosive decade-long connection, both professional and romantic, during which the couple grew and experimented as artists, competed for fame, and created many of the shocking images that cemented Man Ray's reputation as one of the great artists of the modern era. The works they made together, including the Surrealist icons Le Violon d'Ingres and Noire et blanche, now set records at auction.

Charting their volatile relationship, award-winning historian Mark Braude illuminates for the first time Kiki's seminal influence not only on Man Ray's art, but on the culture of 1920s Paris and beyond. As provocative and magnetically irresistible as Kiki herself, Kiki Man Ray is the story of an exceptional life that will challenge ideas about artists and muses?and the lines separating the two.

Mark Braude is the author of The Invisible Emperor and Making Monte Carlo. He has been a visiting fellow at the American Library in Paris, a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University, an NEH Public Scholar, and the recipient of a Silvers Grant. He lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.

A dazzling portrait of Paris's forgotten artist and cabaret star, and her complicated journey to power, romance, and ruin.

In 1920s Paris, Kiki de Montparnasse captivated as a nightclub performer, wrote a best-selling memoir featuring an introduction by Ernest Hemingway, sold out a gallery debut of her paintings, and shared drinks with the likes of Pablo Picasso, Peggy Guggenheim, and Marcel Duchamp. But if she's remembered today, it is for posing for and inspiring many great artists—especially Man Ray, with whom she created several of the iconic images that made his reputation as a groundbreaking American photographer.

So why has Man Ray's legacy endured while Kiki has been relegated to a footnote? By charting their decade-long entanglement—professional and romantic—Mark Braude illuminates for the first time Kiki's seminal influence on the culture of 1920s Paris and beyond. Following the couple as they created art, struggled for power, and competed for fame, Kiki Man Ray challenges ideas about artists and muses, and the lines separating the two.