Boîte-en-Valise, open.
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Title |
Boîte-en-Valise, open. |
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Translated Title |
The Box in a Valise [Suitcase]. |
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Creator |
Duchamp, Marcel (French painter, sculptor, and writer, 1887-1968) |
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Date |
1941 |
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Cultural Context |
French
European
Western European |
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Subject |
Boxes
Luggage
Showcases
Merchandise displays
Commercialism
Art objects
Reproductions
Miniature works |
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Description |
"Duchamp's Boîte 'unpacked' in such a way that certain sections slid out to become free-standing display boards, whilst a sheaf of folders and black mounts bore other reproductions of works from his output. In all, it contained 69 items. These included a miniature version of the Large Glass on celluloid and, next to it, three tiny versions of earlier 'readymades'. These were, at the top, Paris Air of 1919 (a chemist's ampoule, emptied of its contents and then re-sealed by Duchamp); in the middle, Traveller's Folding Item of 1916 (a typewriter cover); and, at the bottom, Fountain (1917), the men's urinal which had originally been rotated 90 degrees to sit on a plinth but was here ironically restored to a 'functional' position. (Caption, p. 38); "The shift in art-world domination from Paris to New York in the postwar period is summed up by Marcel Duchamp's Boîte-en-Valise. The work comprises a collection of miniatures and samples of the French-born artist's pre-1935 output. Included, for example, is a tiny version of Fountain, the re-titled men's urinal which emblematizes Duchamp's one-time involvement with the iconoclasm of Dada. Ever since the demise of the Dada movement in the early 1920s Duchamp had moved between Paris and New York. Based in France when a new European war seemed imminent, he had sensibly decided to 'pack his bags'. […] The objects presented in the Boîte attested to cultural mutations. Early oil paintings by the artist were represented via reproductions. Objects which had once been 'readymades' (the term Duchamp applied to mass-produced objects he had accorded art status) now had a paradoxically 'crafted' quality (the urinal is a case in point). The Boîte also spoke of commodification. Part of an edition (initially a 'de luxe' one of 24), it represented, in Duchamp's words, 'mass production on a modest scale.' Overall it had a dual function. It was a portable museum, regrouping the oeuvre of an iconoclast. But it was also a traveling salesman's display case. […] The Boîte exemplifies the transition between two worlds: the old Europe of the museum and the connoisseur, and the young America of the commercial gallery and the artistic commodity." (Excerpts, p. 37) |
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Material |
Reproductions
Mixed media |
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Work Type |
Reproductions
Oeuvre
Miniature works |
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Repository |
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom) |
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Source |
Hopkins, David. After Modern Art: 1945-2000. Oxford History of Art. Oxford; New York: Oxford UP, 2000. (p.38, fig.17). |
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Rights |
Reproduced in Hopkins courtesy of Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh. © Succession Marcel Duchamp/DACS, 2000. (GMA 3472) |
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Digital Publisher |
University of Louisville Department of Fine Arts/Allen R. Hite Art Institute Visual Resources Center |
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Format |
image/jpeg |
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Digital File Name |
VRC 437-13.jpg |
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Rating |
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