Cadeau
- Artist: Man Ray
- Date: 1921, editioned replica 1972
- Medium: Iron and nails
- Dimensions: object: 178 x 94 x 126 mm
- Museum: Tate Modern
- Collection record: Tate Modern website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is the “Cadeau” by Man Ray. In 1921 he turned a plain household flat‑iron into a startling object by adding a single row of fourteen nails. The iron, once a simple tool for smoothing fabric, now glows with a hint of burning metal, hinting at a violent, almost erotic tension that clashes with the work’s title, the French word for “gift.”
The original piece was presented to the composer Erik Satie, but it was lost early on. It survived, however, through a photograph taken by Man Ray himself, making the piece famous even without the physical object. Created during the height of Parisian Dada, “Cadeau” prefigures the surrealist fascination with hidden desires, turning the ordinary into a provocative, almost fetishistic statement.
Man Ray’s playful yet unsettling humor shines here: a familiar domestic item transformed into a potentially threatening object, inviting viewers to question what we consider harmless or dangerous in everyday life.
See it in person
Cadeau is in the collection of Tate Modern on Bankside, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
