Marcel Duchamp
(Blainville, France, 1887 - 1968, Neuilly-sur-Seine, France)
From or By Marcel Duchamp or Rrose Sélavy (The Box in a Valise)
1941 (1968 edition)
Mixed media
16 1/4 x 15 1/8 x 3 7/8 in. (41.4 x 38.4 x 9.9 cm)
Collection of the Akron Art Museum
Purchased with funds from The Walter P. and Fama Keith Foundation in memory of Walter P. Keith; the Arts Council; and John Coplans
1978.2
More Information
Declared "a portable museum" by Duchamp, The Box in a Valise, as this work is more commonly known, is a fascinating mini-retrospective of the artist's career. It contains approximately 80 diminuitive replicas and facsimilies of works he created over a forty-year period. Duchamp and his friends produced nearly 300 copies of this box between 1941 and 1968. The Rrose Sélavy referred to in the work's title was a fictional character—a feminine alter-ego Duchamp created in the early 1920s. Many of the works he produced thereafter were signed with Rrose's name.
Keywords
AmericanMixed media
Conceptual Art
Commercial
Box
Irony
Dadaism
Modern Art
Assemblage