MAN RAY (1890-1976)

Lot 18
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Estimation :
3000 - 4000 EUR
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Result : 13 000EUR
MAN RAY (1890-1976)
Why not sneeze Rrose Sélavy, Marcel Duchamp, 1921 Original gelatin-silver print, various inscriptions in pencil on the back 8 x 7.5 cm Why not sneeze Rrose Sélavy, Marcel Duchamp, 1921 Original gelatin-silver print, various inscriptions in pencil on the back 3.15 x 2.96 inch Note: "This is a readymade in which sugar is changed into marble. It is a kind of mythological effect" (Marcel Duchamp) Commissioned by his patron Katherine Dreier, who wanted to give a gift to her sister, this readymade is signed under the pseudonym Rrose Selavy. Under this new artistic identity with a feminine and Jewish consonance, Marcel Duchamp embodies what for him is from now on the "basis of all": Eros is life. The sugar cubes filling the lifeless cage suggest pleasure and impermanence, while the marble cubes and the dry bone evoke what remains after life. With the title, Duchamp questions the order of the body and the logic of desire. "It is a readymade in which sugar is transformed into marble. It is a kind of mythological effect" (Marcel Duchamp) Commissioned by his patron Katherine Dreier, who wanted to offer a gift to her sister, this readymade is signed under the pseudonym Rrose Selavy. Under this new artistic identity with a feminine and Jewish sound, Marcel Duchamp embodied what for him was henceforth the "basis of everything": Eros is life. The sugar cubes filling this lifeless cage suggest pleasure and impermanence, while the marble cubes and dry bone evoke what remains after life. With the title, Duchamp questions the order of the body and the logic of desire. Provenance: Collection Edmonde et Lucien Treillard, Paris Bibliography: - J. Cough-Cooper and J. Caumont, Marcel Duchamp, Ephemerides on and about Marcel Duchamp and Rrose Sélavy, 1887-1968, Bompiani, 1993, at the date of 01.9.1921 - Man Ray, photographic retrospective, Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, 1996-1997, p. 171 (this copy)
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