Making Art: Designing Life Together

Lee Miller & Man Ray

Man Ray and Lee Miller met in the Bohemian area of Montparnasse, Paris, in the 1920s. American-born Lee was working as a model for Vogue when she set her sights on the photographer and devised a plan to make his acquaintance.

“Suddenly Man Ray kind of rose up through the floor at the top of the circular staircase. He looked like a bull with an extraordinary torso and very dark eyebrows and dark hair. I said, ‘My name is Lee Miller, and I’m your new student.’ Man said, ‘I don’t have students.’ He was leaving for Biarritz the next day, and I said, ‘So am I.’ I never looked back!”

Miller, in an interview for the American Home Journal in 1975

Lee was a strong and beautiful woman, and although this led to her being a muse for many of Man Ray’s works, she became a critically acclaimed photographer in her own right. They created art together, as well as love, reaching a climax in the 1930s with their accidental discovery of solarisation, a technique that gave an image an almost otherworldly silvery finish - in their hands, the craft became a fine art.

Their romance was not of the chocolate-box variety, but one of fire and passion. When their love affair ended, Man Ray was beside himself, and he expressed his pain through a dramatic piece of surrealist art: a metronome with her ticking eye on it.  The idea was to watch the eye tick back and forth until you could stand it no longer and then smash it to pieces with a hammer.

Over time, their passions mellowed, and they remained lifelong friends until he died in 1976.

Frida Kahlo & Diego Rivera

Frida Kahlo is now one of the most iconic female artists who ever lived. Still, during her lifetime, her artistic talents were not as highly regarded as those of her husband, Diego Rivera.

The beautiful, heroic and tragic Frida married Diego in Mexico in 1929, much to the dismay of her friends and family.  He was over 20 years older than her, and her parents compared the couple to a dove and an elephant due to his enormous size. He was also a womaniser who cheated on her throughout their marriage, causing her heartache and misery. But love is blind, and despite his womanising, she loved him intensely, and many of her most famous paintings were inspired by their torturous love.

“I’d like to paint you, but there are no colours, because there are so many, in my confusion, the tangible form of my great love.”

Kahlo in a love letter written to her husband

The couple divorced in 1939, only to remarry each other a year later. Their marriage continued to be unconventional, with both parties engaging in extramarital affairs over the years. Love is many different things to many people, and theirs was certainly complicated.

Ray & Charles Eames

Ray & Charles Eames were the king and queen of design, Mr & Mrs Mid-Century Modern. After several failed marriages, Charles married Ray and the Eames’ packed their cases and headed off for a new life in California.

It was here that they set up the office that was to produce the most iconic furniture designs of the 20th Century. Although Charles is credited with being the mind behind all of the design projects, they both shared a passion for quality in everything they touched.

Their marriage was old-fashioned, where Charles played the field with a string of women, while Ray worshipped the ground he walked on, protecting his reputation and business until his death in 1978. Their marriage, like a show home, was a facade. The couple had a highly managed public persona and worked in a manner similar to business partnerships, rather than a romantic union.

Perhaps her love was unrequited, but she loved him loyally until the day he died in 1978. Even her death, exactly 10 years to the day Charles died, could have been staged to represent the perfect romantic ending. The Eames’ ashes are buried in identical handcrafted boxes somewhere in St. Louis, USA.