Ady Fidelin
Ady Fidelin | |
|---|---|
 Ady Fidelin, and artist Man Ray, her lover | |
| Born |
March 4, 1915 |
| Died |
February 5, 2004 (aged 88) |
| Other names |
|
| Occupation | dancer, model, actress |
Ady Fidelin was an Guadeloupean dancer, model and actress, who is believed to be the first woman of African descent to be pictured in a major American fashion magazine.[1][2][3]
Early life
[edit | edit source]Fidelin was born in Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe, in 1915.[2] Her mother died in 1928, when a hurricane destroyed their house, and her father died two years later.[4] So, in 1930, orphaned, fifteen years old Fidelin took a ship to France to go live with her older sister, in Paris. She ended up working as a dancer.
Life with Man Ray
[edit | edit source]_-_Pablo_Picasso%27s_portrait_of_Ady_Fidelin.jpg)
Her New York Times obituary says it is unclear when she met Jewish-American artist Man Ray, they were together for several years, before he fled Paris, before Nazi Germany occupied the city.[2] The New York Times describes her as Man Ray's muse, and he took hundreds of photographs of her. Several of his friends also took pictures of her, or painted her, including Pablo Picasso.
Occupied Paris
[edit | edit source]The New York Times quoted friends of Fidelin, who described her as fearless.[2] She remained in Paris during the German occupation, in spite of the risks to her as a black person. She is credited with playing an important role in preserving Man Ray's artistic legacy from the Germans.
Love letters the pair wrote one another, during the war, have survived.[2] But they each had other lovers by the time they met again, in 1947.
Life after fame
[edit | edit source]The artistic community she had been a part of, during her time with Man Ray, was disrupted by the war, and many of them thought she had died.[2] She married André Art, a long-term lover, in 1958. The pair moved to Albi, France.
According to novelist Gisèle Pineau's research, Fidelin worked in nursing homes after moving to Albi.[4]
She died in 2004, in Lagrave, at 88 years old.[2]
Legacy
[edit | edit source]Novelist Gisèle Pineau became interested in Fidelin when a friend remarked that Pineau looked like Fidelin.[4] She had never heard of Fidelin, researched her, and then wrote a novel, Ady, soleil noir, fictionalizing her life.[5] Pineau was interviewed by France 24, in 2021, when her novel was published. Pineau told interviewers she found, during her research, that Fidelin's father died in 1930, two years after her mother, and that, now an orphan, she traveled to Paris at fifteen years old.
It was Wendy A. Grossman, an art curator, who recognized that Pablo Picassso's painting Femme assise sur fond jaune et rose, II (Portrait de femme) was a portrait of Fidelin.[1]
References
[edit | edit source]- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3
Wendy A. Grossman (2020-04-16). "Unmasking Adrienne Fidelin: Picasso, Man Ray, and the (In)Visibility of Racial Difference". Modernism/modernity Print Plus. 5 (1). doi:doi.org/10.26597/mod.0142 Check
|doi=value (help). Retrieved 2025-02-04.Among these newly recognized figures is the Guadeloupean dancer and model Adrienne Fidelin (1915-2004), whose short time in the spotlight of avant-garde activities in interwar Paris quickly faded into oblivion in the postwar years.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 Rachel Felder (2022-04-29). "Overlooked No More: Ady Fidelin, Black Model 'Hidden in Plain Sight'". The New York Times. p. A22. Retrieved 2025-02-04.
- ↑
Sala Elise Patterson (2017-03-09). "Man Ray's "Missing Muse" was the first black model in an American fashion magazine". GRIOT magazine. Archived from the original on 2017-05-15. Retrieved 2025-02-04.
She met, socialized and vacationed with Pablo Picasso and Dora Maar, Paul Éluard and his wife Nusch, Max Ernst and Leonora Carrington, and Lee Miller and Roland Penrose. In his autobiography, Man Ray describes how the group welcomed her, which is confirmed by dozens of snapshots and arty portraits of Fidelin looking at home in the company of her hedonistic and frenetically creative new friends.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Cécile Baquey (2021-01-02). "Gisèle Pineau redonne vie à Ady Fidelin, la muse de Man Ray [Interview]" [Gisèle Pineau brings Ady Fidelin, Man Ray’s muse, back to life]. Outre-mer la 1ère (in français). Retrieved 2025-02-04.
- ↑
"Ady, soleil noir - Gisèle Pineau". Philippe Rey (in français). Retrieved 2025-02-04.
Gisèle Pineau a écrit le roman vrai d’Ady, le « soleil noir » de Man Ray – une femme toute de grâce, dont Éluard aurait assuré qu’elle avait « des nuages dans les mains ».