L'Etoile de Mer, 1928

Man Ray printed this characteristically thought-provoking still life directly from the 35mm negative of his film, L'Etoile de Mer, made in 1928. Sprocket holes are visible on either side of the print. In addition to the artful arrangement of half-eaten banana, bottle, glass and starfish, a newspaper is folded back to reveal the face of 'le bébé Cadum,' a private joke shared by Man Ray, Leger, Picabia and other artists and poets of the period. Man Ray loaned the print to The Museum of Modern Art, New York in the early 1940s and then gave it to Dada filmmaker, Hans Richter, in 1947 during their collaboration on the Surrealist film, Dreams That Money Can Buy.