Untitled

1909–1913

Four years in a studio room at home

For the next four years Ray stays in the family home and works steadily towards becoming a professional painter, earning money as a commercial artist and technical illustrator at several Manhattan companies. He is an avid admirer of the avant-garde — the European modernists he sees at Alfred Stieglitz's 291 gallery and the Ashcan School — but cannot yet integrate it into his own work, and the art classes he attends sporadically at the National Academy of Design and the Art Students League are of little benefit.

1912–1913

The Ferrer Centre show and his first publications

Ray exhibits works in the Ferrer Centre's 1912–13 group exhibition; his painting A Study in Nudes is reproduced in a review of the show in the centre's magazine The Modern School — possibly his first published artwork. In 1913 the same magazine prints his first published poem, Travail.

1913

Meeting the European avant-garde at the Armory Show

At the 1913 Armory Show Ray is introduced to the avant-garde practices of contemporary European artists; his early paintings display facets of cubism.

1914

Married: Adon Lacroix

1914

Meeting Picabia and Duchamp

Ray meets Francis Picabia and Marcel Duchamp; the three later become friends and collaborators, connected by their experimental, entertaining and innovative art.

1915

His first solo show

Ray's first solo show, of paintings and drawings, is held in New York.