Man Ray & Tristan Tzara

Tristan Tzara and Jean Cocteau

About this artwork

This is a photograph by Man Ray of Jean Cocteau (he is the figure on the left holding a banjo) and Tristan Tzara (he is the one on the right using a walking cane as a trumpet), which has been drawn over in Pen and ink by Tzara. Cocteau was a Dada poet whose fame and success meant that he was disliked by many Dadaists, and Tzara was a central figure of the movement. Man Ray made another more formal portrait of Cocteau and Tzara, in which they are enrobed in a single piece of cloth, while a cut white lampshade spirals around their necks. Man Ray and Tzara became close friends in Paris when they both lived at the Hotel des Ecoles.

Updated before 2020

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Man Ray

Man Ray