Hat with Red Eyes

Once described as “New York’s most famous unknown artist, ” Ray Johnson is today remembered as a leading figure of the Pop and Neo-Dada movements that emerged in the 1950s as critiques of popular culture and mass media. Johnson challenged artistic conventions with his innovative collages of found materials and collaboratively produced “mail art” that invited the participation of fellow artists through the U.S. mail. Hat with Red Eyes is an example of his work in collage, an homage to the radical modernist American poet Marianne Moore (1887–1972). The two innovators had briefly shared a correspondence, and, with characteristic wit and economy, Johnson used Moore’s iconic black tricorn hat as a symbol for the poet and her creative brilliance. The collage is one of several portrayals of Moore that Johnson completed during the 1960s.