Marcel DUCHAMP (1887-1968) Lot n° 27

λ From or by Marcel Duchamp or Rrose Sélavy (La Boîte-en-valise), series E signed 'Marcel Duchamp' (inside the box) wooden and cardboard box with dark green imitation cover including 68 miniature replicas and reproductions of works by Marcel Duchamp 40 x 38 x 9.5 cm. Designed between 1935 and 1940; this version was executed in Paris in 1963 in an unnumbered edition of 30 copies. signed 'Marcel Duchamp' (on the inside) a dark green imitation leather covered wooden and cardboard box containing 68 miniature replicas and reproductions of works by Marcel Duchamp 16 ¾ x 15 x 3 ¾ in. Conceived between 1935 and 1940; this version executed in Paris in 1963 in an unnumbered edition of 30 Provenance Man Ray Collection, Paris (probably acquired from the artist) Atelier Man Ray, Paris Collection Lucien Treillard, Paris (acquired from him) Literature Life, April 28, 1952, pp. 102-103 (the copy in Series A of the Museum of Modern Art, New York illustrated in colour). R. Lebel, Sur Marcel Duchamp, Paris, 1959, pp. 54, 55, 82-83 and 173-174, no. 173 (another illustrated version, pl. 109). C. Tomkins, The World of Marcel Duchamp, New York, 1966, p. 156. A. Schwarz, The Complete Works of Marcel Duchamp (New York, 1970), pp. 511-513, no. 311e. (other illustrated versions, pp. 511-512). E. Bonk, Marcel Duchamp, The portable museum, The Making of the Boîte-en-valise, de ou par Marcel Duchamp ou Rrose Sélavy, London, 1989, p. 300 (another illustrated colour copy). C. Tomkins, Duchamp, A Biography, New York, 1996, pp. 320-328, 331, 334, 339, 346, 353-354, 371, 376, 391, 422, 428, 436 and 443 (another illustrated version, p. 320). D. Ades, N. Cox and D. Hopkins, Marcel Duchamp, London, 1999, pp. 174-179 (another colour illustrated version, pp. 176-177). F.M. Naumann, Marcel Duchamp: The Art of Making Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, New York, 1999, pp. 142-143, no. 5.31 and 5.32 (other colour illustrations). A. Schwarz, The Complete Works of Marcel Duchamp, New York, 1997, vol. II, pp. 762-764, no. 484 (another colour-illustrated version, p. 407). F.M. Naumann, The Recurrent, Haunting Ghost: Essays on the Art, Life and Legacy of Marcel Duchamp, New York, 2012, p. 137, no. 14 (another illustrated colour version, p. 136). Exhibited Rouen, Musée des Beaux-arts, La boi^te en valise: de ou par Marcel Duchamp ou Rrose Se'lavy, October 1998-January 1999. Special Notice Artist's Resale Right ("droit de suite"). If the Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot, the buyer also agrees to pay us an amount equal to the resale royalty provided for in those Regulations, and we undertake to the buyer to pay such amount to the artist's collection agent. Post Lot Text On 1 January 1941, Marcel Duchamp, who had already built up a reputation in the artistic world as a painter who abandoned the arts to play chess, announced, to everyone's surprise, the creation of a new work. Indeed, Marcel Duchamp worked secretly on assembling the materials for his Boîte-en-valise foralmost five years before the presentation of his first twenty luxury edition suitcases. With its removable frames featuring reproductions of the artist such as Nu descending the stairs, Le grand verre, Neuf moules mâlic and hisminiature ready-mades suspended in a vertical "gallery", the Boîte resembles aportable museum presenting an extract of the artist's work before 1940. More than just a miniature retrospective of the artist's production up to that date, the Suitcase Box couldbe considered a ready-made in itself. As such, it is representative of a drastic change in the artist's philosophy: having previously established that he did not wish to reproduce any "accepted" art form, not even his own, with the Suitcases, Duchamp's discourse changes completely. Here he creates copies of objects he had previously made. Presented in carefully packaged and finely crafted constructions, these objects resemble manufactured art "devices" that recall the circularity of art created from objects already designated as artistic. On January 1, 1941, Marcel Duchamp - who had already established a reputation in the art world as a painter who stopped making art in order to play chess - surprised many by announcing the release of a new work. Indeed Duchamp had been q