Mar 23, 2023 - Sale 2630

Sale 2630 - Lot 202

Price Realized: $ 1,000
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,500
MARCEL DUCHAMP
De ou par Marcel Duchamp ou Rrose Sélavy (Boîte Série G).

Portfolio with numerous replicas and illustrations of Duchamp's work, 1968-2015. 403x370x90 mm; 16x14 3/4x3 3/4 inches. Edition of 3000. Published by Walther König, Cologne, under the supervision of the Association Marcel Duchamp, Paris. Original green portfolio.

This is a facsimile of Duchamp's (1887-1968) celebrated retrospective portfolios De ou par Marcel Duchamp ou Rrose Sélavy (La Boîte-en-valise), consisting of a group of reproductions of the artist's works inside a box that was, in some cases, accompanied by a leather valise or suitcase. Duchamp made two versions of the boîte, in 1935 and 1966. According to his own description, "Instead of painting something new, my aim was to reproduce the paintings and objects I liked and collect them in as small a space as possible. I did not know how to go about it. I first thought of a book, but I did not like the idea. Then it occurred to me that it could be a box in which all my works would be collected and mounted like in a small museum, a portable museum, so to speak. This is it, this valise."