Photogram of woman in profile,

ca. 1935

In the 1930s Maar was one of the most accomplished camera artists associated with the Surrealist movement in Paris, which aimed to give the unconscious free reign in art and literature. She developed experimental darkroom techniques to create unexpected images and perspectives, testing the relationship between reality and the “marvelous,” a Surrealist concept of the wonder to be found in the everyday. This work combines camera-based photography with the photogram technique: Maar laid a sheet of photographic paper in an enlarger easel, stood three art deco glass goblets upright at the top edge of the easel, and projected a negative of a model’s head onto the paper. The upper portions of the goblets were a few inches above the paper and therefore register as three large circles of light that resemble enormous jewels on the model’s hat.