Marcel Duchamp

Property from the Collection of Carlos Alberto Cruz

MARCEL DUCHAMP

LA MARIÉE MISE A NU PAR SES CÉLIBATAIRES MEME [THE GREEN BOX]. [PARIS: EDITION RROSE SÉLAVY, 1934]

One color plate and 93 facsimiles of notes, drawings, photographs, etc., various sizes, unbound. Clamshell case covered in green flocked paper, title and author's name outlined in punched holes on upper cover and spine, colophon on inner spine of box; flocked paper rubbed as usual, edges and corners worn, artist's signature faint on colophon on flocked paper.

"A wedding of mental and visuals reactions."

Copy 197 of 300 numbered sets, signed by Duchamp.

The artist' s preliminary notes and source material for The Large Glass, presented in a series of remarkable facsimiles. Duchamp supervised the production of these documents himself and they are indispensable to our understanding of the The Large Glass.

In 1954, Michel Sanouillet reflected on Duchamp's rationale for publishing The Green Box: "The relationship of the notes to the Large Glass becomes clear if one bears in mind that the Glass, in Duchamp's own words is both 'a wedding of mental and visual reactions' and 'an accumulation of ideas.' The point is that 'Some ideas require a graphic language if they are not to be violated: this is my Glass. But a commentary [made up] of notes may be useful, like the captions that go with photos in a Galeries Lafayette catalogue. This is the raiseon d'etre of my box'" (quoted in Schwarz).

REFERENCE:

Lebel 166; Schwarz, Collected Works 435