American Art Collaborative

Man Ray created this self-portrait in Paris, intending for it to appear on the cover of a book of his photographs. A bronze cast of his face, wearing the artist's glasses, mocks the tradition of memorializing great men with death masks. The cast is cushioned in newsprint like a corpse in a coffin. Autoportrait suggests an artist entombed in his reputation and belies Man Ray's brave assertion "I simply try to be as free as possible . . . The work is done. I have total freedom."

Exhibition Label, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2006