Box in a Valise
Original Language TitleBoîte-en-Valise
Series TitleSeries E
Artist
Marcel Duchamp
(French, 1887 - 1968)
Date1963
MediumWood, cardboard, paper, and plastic
DimensionsOverall: 16 × 15 × 4 inches (40.64 × 38.1 × 10.16 cm)
Credit LinePurchase: acquired through the generosity of the William T. Kemper Foundation–Commerce Bank, Trustee
Object number2001.27.A-O
SignedSigned in blue ballpoint ink next to the "Coffee Mill": Marcel Duchamp
On View
Not on viewCollections
DescriptionA box, made of dark green imitation leather, which opens and unfolds, revealing 68 miniature representations of paintings, drawings, and other works of art.Gallery LabelDuchamp worked for five years on the material for what he called his "portable museum." Together, the 68 photographs, miniature replicas and color reproductions function as a transportable retrospective of his life's work. The Box contains examples of Duchamp's early Cubist paintings; his Readymades, like the urinal he purchased from a plumbing supply store and presented as a work of art called Fountain; and his mechanistic treatise on love, The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even (The Large Glass), the centerpiece of this work.
The Box opens and the removable contents are displayed like the wares of a traveling salesman. In fact, the artist disguised himself as a cheese merchant during 1940 and escaped Nazi-occupied France with his valise of art documents.
The Box opens and the removable contents are displayed like the wares of a traveling salesman. In fact, the artist disguised himself as a cheese merchant during 1940 and escaped Nazi-occupied France with his valise of art documents.
Copyright© Succession Marcel Duchamp / ADAGP, Paris / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
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