Raoul UBAC - Railways, 1978, Lithograph signed in pencil

Raoul Ubac : (1910-1985) born Rudolf Gustav Maria Ernst Ubach on August 31st, 1910 in Malmedy or in Koln (Prussia) and who died on March 24th in 1985 in Dieudonne (Oise), was a belgian photographer, painter, engraver, and sculptor, of the Nouvelle Ecole de Paris. In 1930, he entered la Sorbonne, and acquainted surrealist artists. He used to hang out at the Montparnasse workhops. He met Camille Bryen and Otto Freundlich, André Breton, and was part of the surrealist world. He travelled by foot all around Europe, to Italy, Switzerland, Austria. In Dalmatia, on the Hvar island, il assembled stones he found, and photographed them. He then started experimenting with processes of burning, solarisation, petrification, and exhibited in 1933 in Paris the results of his researches. He rubbed shoulders with Hans Bellmer, Victor Brauner, Benjamin Péret or Raoul Hausmann. In October 1935, he participated to the International Surrealism exhibition under the pseudonym of Raoul Michelet. Some of his photographs were published in the surrealist magazine "Minotaure". He learnt engraving in Stanley Hayter's workshop, and befriended Roger Gilbert-Lecomte. In 1940, Raoul Ubac founded with René Magritte the magazine "L'Invention collective". War took him away of surrealim littled by littled, and made him give up photography. His works are present in numerous french and european museums.