A leading figure in both New York and Paris Dada, and later in Surrealism, Man Ray worked in several media exploring the concept of the "found object" - treating discarded materials as valued artifacts. Many of these objects recur over many years in a range of the artist's work. The motif of the unwinding swath of paper first appeared in Man Ray's controversial Dada sculpture of 1919, Lampshade, in which an unrolled paper lampshade curled around a metal shaft. He returned to the motif in four subsequent works, three of which are titled Return to Reason. This painting is the earliest. A three minute film followed in 1923, and a larger version of our painting was executed in 1939.