Artist Marcel Duchamp Period Dada | Created 1921 Genre Site-specific art | |
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Part of series Readymades of Marcel Duchamp Media Painted metal birdcage containing marble blocks Similar Marcel Duchamp artwork, Artwork at Museum of Modern Art, Dada artwork | ||
Why not Sneeze, Rose Sélavy? is a 1921 "readymade" sculpture by Marcel Duchamp. Specifically, Duchamp considered this to be an "assisted Readymade", this being because the original object has been altered by the artist. The meaning of this is that the birdcage has been "assisted" by the addition of the other objects. They consist of 152 white cubes (made of marble, but resembling sugar cubes), a mercury thermometer, a piece of cuttlebone, and a tiny porcelain dish. The birdcage is made of painted metal and contains several wooden perches.
The Philadelphia Museum of Art displays the original as part of the Louise and Walter Arensberg Collection. Several replicas exist, made by Duchamp, but only in the original are the cubes stamped "Made in France".
Explanation
About the sculpture, Duchamp said:
An explanation for the piece given by Duchamp involves the coldness of the marble cubes, the "heat-giving" properties of the sugar cubes, the thermometer evaluating temperature, and the sneezing that can result from cold. In commenting on the title Duchamp pointed out that there is a "dissociation gap" between sneezing at will and sneezing against one's will.
André Breton wrote about Why not Sneeze, Rose Sélavy?:
