I"ve read a lot of books set in Paris in the 20s-Mary McAuliffe's Paris when it sizzles, Ruth Brandon's The Surrealists, Whitney Scharrer's Age of Light, Paula Maclain's The Paris Wife, Francine Prose's Lovers at the Chameleon Club and of course A moveable feast. They're all excellent and reveal a different facet of life, none of it overly romanticized. Most of them, though, are about the artists and I liked that this book was about the close relationship[ between the artist and the muse, for some artworks. 'Mistral's daughter', by Judith Krantz, is a well-written (for a writer whose work can be quite pulp-y at times) account, from the perspective of a famous artist’s muse, and reading this book was like the non-fiction version. Alice Prin, or Kiki de MOntparnasse as she styled herself, was a forerunner of a social media influencer. She wanted leave her provincial life behind, and make it in Paris, and she succeeded-on the sheer force of her personality and her constant evolution of image. Mopntparnasse at the time, was starting to get a reputation for the place where the action was: it’s not very far from the Academie des Beaux Arts, and artist who didn’t get accepted there ( which reads like a Who’s WHO of 20th Century Art), ended up staying in here, in inexpensive accommodation, and using, and living in a large space of workshops, constructed using materials from Exposition Universelle at the end of the 19th Century. That was where Kiki wanted to be. She just about survived in Paris, off the kindness of others in some instances, and off sheer grit in others, and doing whatever she could. Her reputation grew as an interesting artist's model-one who wasn't conventional and took an active role in suggesting settings and poses for the artwork. And of course, she was fun, she felt modern, in a way of life that was just beginning to evolve. (To give you a sense of the time, Kiki’s arrival in Paris was just 10 years after the publication of Swann’s Way, with its highly mannered society, nothing said explicitly, Odette, the sort-of courtesan making very veiled delicate references to her situation, and here was Kiki, always ready with a bawdy joke and a ribald song). The process seems a lot more collaborative than it seems-I've seen the Man Ray photo of Kiki with the African mask, and one of the best chapters in the book is about the nearly day-long, exhausting process it was to capture that one photo, with Kiki trying out multiple angles, none of them seemingly working till she hit upon that one perfect pose. Braude writes of how important artist's models were to their survival-a lot of the artists lived off the models' earnings, and all their unpaid labour of cooking, cleaning and keeping house-these were men at the forefront of modernism in their respective artistic field, but some behaviours are too ingrained (and convenient) to be modern about! While the book’s a dual biography of Kiki and Man Ray, and the eventual coming together of their artistic sensibilities, I found the chapters on Kiki a lot more interesting. Reading this from a 21st Century lens is fascinating, when so much of life is performance. That was something Kiki worked at-she made her life a performance, she needed to be in the public eye and crafted how to behave, dress and work a crowd. She also seems to have fostered a sort of sisterhood in Montparnasse, and helped other models, some of whom were life-long friends.
It’s interesting to read of the spirit of collaboration with artist bouncing ideas off each other and trying to find new ways to express themselves, and the extremely generous ones who opened their homes and spaces to them-such as the wonderful Maria Vassilieff. It’s not all written through a golden glow of nostalgia though, but it wasn’t always starvation and exploitation either. Kiki had done what she dreamt of as a child-reinvented herself completely from a provincial nobody to someone at the heart of artistic life at the time. Unfortunately for her, as the years went on, and Europe headed towards another war, her style of entertainment couldn’t keep up with changing tastes, and she couldn’t parlay her image into financial stability. She would be a star now! The book points out that given her success as a singer, it was surprising that she couldn’t make a career recording an album-she tried, but it’s really not as easy as that, and her style of intimate performance with the singer also acting the song, would influence future chanteuses like Edith Piaf. And as the book ends delightfully, with a remembrance of her in Life magazine from one of her Montparnasse friends: Öh, how she laughed”.

Vastly entertaining - and that’s not only because Kiki is! This was also an investigation that becomes an exploration of why sometimes people who seem disorganised and shambling can be ‘successful’ - and there is an examination along the way of what ‘success’ is that is quite deft and subtly put. A real historical enquiry then, and very readable - the charm and eventual deterioration of Kiki and the impact on and of the world around her is well put, and utterly readable. Highly recommend …

Unfortunately I didn't enjoy this book, I just couldn't get into it. More not my thing than the book itself I'm sure

I only knew of Kiki from her gorgeous silouhette immortalized in Man Ray's photography, and I finished this book with a clear sense of who she was, and how absolutely key she was to european surrealism, modern art in the early 20th century and Montparnasse, which she seemed to completely embody the spirit of. It's a loving testament to a person so full of energy and vibrancy, it couldn't be contained to one medium and I was fascinated by her life and accounts of what made her unique.

Superb biography of a twentieth century star. Kiki is brought to life and her contribution to art and a whole generations of artists in Paris in the 1920s. It was wonderful to feel what montparnasse was like at a time of such innovation and inspiration. Kiki was truly a free spirit, a muse, an artist in her own right and memoirist and singer besides. Having seen some icon images of her face over the years it is fantastic that she has now been given a rounded story in the spotlight.

A great read, very informative and kept me enthralled. Following Kiki in the years between 1921 and 1929, when she lived and worked with Man Ray, Kiki Man Ray charts their complicated entanglement and reveals how Man Ray - always the unabashed careerist - went on to become one of the most famous photographers of the twentieth century, enjoying wealth and prestige, while Kiki's legacy was lost.

This novel entailed an incredibly deep and detailed insight into two influential artists of the 1920’s Paris. Braude entails every moment in their lives that would eventually transform their career and their future relationships. This book mainly focuses on Kiki’s massively growing success after laying out the foundations of Alice’s (Kiki) childhood and her struggle out of poverty, an abusive relationship and depression. Kiki’s story is a fascinating one, to come from such depths of poverty to becoming one of the most sought out model and singer in Paris- the Queen of Montparnasse who transformed art. She was the “woman to capture the spirit of their age like no one else, and by doing nothing more that making a performance of herself”. Switching from Kiki, throughout, we also learn about Emmanuel (Man Ray) and his journey as an artist who travelled the Atlantic Ocean to find inspiration and his messy but crucial relationship with Kiki as well as himself. Man Ray played a significant role in surrealism and transformed photography, he was “so in love with destruction, because destruction brought hope”.

As a reader who has been wanting to delve into non fiction, I found this easy to follow and to understand, the story was so rich with detail and Braude’s storytelling kept it intriguing and insightful. The 1920’s Parisian art movement is an extremely fascinating topic, mixing it with a woman as unique as Kiki and a turbulent relationship really transformed everything. I really enjoyed reading about the social change, the effects of the first world war and the impact they made onto the French art movements of cubism and surrealism. Kiki is an icon and Braude portrays that perfectly. It was incredible to read about the what, why, who and the where of every situation alongside the analysis of the reactions and emotions of their peers. I grew to really admire a woman that I had previously little knowledge of. I recommend this to anyone who are interested in back story of art & fashion icons and who are eager to learn about the artists who transform surrealism in a whole new medium.

Many thanks to #netgalley and #johnmurraypress for sending me this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

An exploration of the intertwining lives of photographer Man Ray (aka Emmanuel Radnitsky) and the model, muse, and eventual artist, memoirist and performer, known as Kiki of Montparnasse (aka Alice Prin). Kiki and Man Ray’s intimate relationship resulted in a series of ground-breaking, now-famous images. Mark Braude opens with an account of Kiki’s origins, born in 1901, Kiki came from a dirt-poor background, working from the age of 12 to support her mother. Braude’s Kiki is irrepressible, kicked out on the streets by her mother she quickly became skilled at surviving on very little, sometimes sleeping rough or on friends’ sofas, flashing her breasts for a few coins if she desperately needed cash. By chance she ended up posing for a painter, and found that life as a model suited far better than the hard-graft conventional jobs she’d scraped into in the past. Kiki became an iconic figure in the growing artistic community of Montparnasse on Paris’s Left Bank. Painters, sculptors, writers flocked to the area drawn by the cheap rents and plentiful accommodation.

During Montparnasse’s Années folles or Paris’s equivalent of the roaring twenties, Kiki finally began to flourish. Her circle of artist clients grew, and she formed friendships with the local Dadaists and Surrealists, although she couldn’t tell them apart, until she was a fixture in Montparnasse’s thriving café culture. In 1921 she met Man Ray who’d arrived in France from America. Braude provides an overview of Man Ray’s early life and career in America building up to his encounter with Kiki. Man Ray came from Brooklyn via Pennsylvania, his parents were Russian Jews, and his arrival in 1890 marked the beginning of their family. He became fascinated with the Dadaists and avant-garde art, partly through his marriage to Belgian poet Donna Lacour who also introduced him to the work of de Sade and Lautréamont – later twin obsessions. French literature and a chance meeting with Marcel Duchamp eventually led him to Paris, although he left Lacour behind. Not long after they met, Kiki and Man Ray moved in together and started their eight-year collaboration.

Braude’s dual biography’s accessible, sometimes gossipy but includes a decent overview of Kiki and Man Ray’s cultural and historical contexts – the aftermath of war, experiments with spiritualism - as well as the kinds of artwork and movements that influenced them – he also offers glimpses of writers and artists from Djuna Barnes to Jean Cocteau, Picasso, James Joyce and Gertrude Stein. His work’s clearly well-researched, almost exhaustively, and I found this made it feel a little overly detailed, dense and leisurely at times, a bit whirlwind at others. I was also a little disappointed by the later sections, after Kiki and Man Ray’s time together ended, they seemed particularly rushed and list-like, less lively and engaging than the earlier chronicle of Paris in the 1920s. But Braide’s obvious interest in Kiki, his spirited defence of her cultural significance, and championing of her central role in Montparnasse’s artistic heyday, was also very persuasive and hard not to like.

When I think about Kiki de Montparnasse and Man Ray I visualize Le violon d’Ingres and that was all I knew about their relationship and about Kiki.
This well researched book make me learned a lot about these two artists and the great characters that were part of their world.
It's a highly recommended read if you want to learn about an exceptional woman and her life.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

I have to admit, that I did not know much about Kiki prior to reading this book. However, as a person with a professional interest in photography, I'm familiar with Man Ray's work...
It is an interesting book about an interesting person and touches others, who surrounded her, with special attention to Man Ray himself. Kiki was his friend, partner, muse... you name it. As a very creative person herself, she not only posed for other artists, or acted in films but produced paintings herself. This lead me to the fact, that this book would have strongly benefited from the illustrations - whether pictures artists, especially Man Ray produced of her, or her own work. The descriptions are fairly good but one picture would say more than a hundred words...
Otherwise, this book covers the life of a very overlooked person and reaches out to the sources, which might be difficult to find. It also encourages to read more by anyone who is or gets interested in the particular era, area, person, or certain artists and their work. I might dig out my copy of a book on Man Ray's life and career, which I still didn't get to read yet.