Tristan Tzara (Romanian, 1896 - 1963), was a poet, performance artist, and essayist who was the founder of the international Dada movement during and after World War I. Originally affiliated with Zurich Dada, which included artists such as Hugo Ball, Jean Arp and Sophie Taeuber-Arp, he moved to Paris in 1920 and met Man Ray while they we both living at the Hôtel des Grandes Écoles in Montparnasse. By the 1930s, Tzara moved away from the nihilist tendencies of Dada and explored Surrealism, a movement begun by his friend André Breton. He was also politically active as a communist and a member of the Resistance during the German occupation of Paris during World War II. Man Ray photographed Tzara on several occasions, and the two developed a close friendship.