![“Rrose Sélavy, was one of the pseudonyms of artist Marcel Duchamp. The name, a pun, sounds like the French phrase “Eros, c’est la vie”, which translates to English as “eros, that’s life”. It has also been read as “arroser la vie” (“to make a toast to life”). Why Not Sneeze, Rose Sélavy? (1921)
Sélavy emerged in 1921 in a series of photographs by Man Ray of Duchamp dressed as a woman. Through the 1920s Man Ray and Duchamp collaborated on more photos of Sélavy. Duchamp later used the name as the byline on written material and signed several creations with it. Duchamp used the name in the title of at least one sculpture, Why Not Sneeze, Rose Sélavy?. The sculpture, a type of readymade called an assemblage, consists of an oral thermometer, a couple dozen small cubes of marble resembling sugar cubes inside a birdcage. She also appears on the label of Belle Haleine, Eau de Voilette, a 1921 readymade that is a perfume bottle in the original box. Duchamp also signed his film Anemic Cinema (1926) with the Sélavy name.
From 1922 onwards the name Rrose Sélavy also started appearing in a series of aphorisms, puns and spoonerisms by the French surrealist poet Robert Desnos. Aphorism 13 paid homage to Marcel Duchamp: “Rrose Sélavy connaît bien le marchand du sel” [in English: “Rrose Sélavy knows the merchant of salt well”; in French the final words sound like Mar-champ Du-cel — Duchamp’s compiled notes are titled ‘Salt Seller’]. (Note that the ‘salt seller’ aphorism - “mar-chand-du-sel” - is a phonetic rearrangement of the syllables in the artist’s actual name: “mar-cel-du-champ.”) In 1939 a collection of these aphorisms was published under the name of Rrose Sélavy, entitled Poils et coups de pieds en tous genres.”](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:WhyNotSneeze.jpg "“Rrose Sélavy, was one of the pseudonyms of artist Marcel Duchamp. The name, a pun, sounds like the French phrase “Eros, c’est la vie”, which translates to English as “eros, that’s life”. It has also been read as “arroser la vie” (“to make a toast to life”). Why Not Sneeze, Rose Sélavy? (1921)
Sélavy emerged in 1921 in a series of photographs by Man Ray of Duchamp dressed as a woman. Through the 1920s Man Ray and Duchamp collaborated on more photos of Sélavy. Duchamp later used the name as the byline on written material and signed several creations with it. Duchamp used the name in the title of at least one sculpture, Why Not Sneeze, Rose Sélavy?. The sculpture, a type of readymade called an assemblage, consists of an oral thermometer, a couple dozen small cubes of marble resembling sugar cubes inside a birdcage. She also appears on the label of Belle Haleine, Eau de Voilette, a 1921 readymade that is a perfume bottle in the original box. Duchamp also signed his film Anemic Cinema (1926) with the Sélavy name.
From 1922 onwards the name Rrose Sélavy also started appearing in a series of aphorisms, puns and spoonerisms by the French surrealist poet Robert Desnos. Aphorism 13 paid homage to Marcel Duchamp: “Rrose Sélavy connaît bien le marchand du sel” [in English: “Rrose Sélavy knows the merchant of salt well”; in French the final words sound like Mar-champ Du-cel — Duchamp’s compiled notes are titled ‘Salt Seller’]. (Note that the ‘salt seller’ aphorism - “mar-chand-du-sel” - is a phonetic rearrangement of the syllables in the artist’s actual name: “mar-cel-du-champ.”) In 1939 a collection of these aphorisms was published under the name of Rrose Sélavy, entitled Poils et coups de pieds en tous genres.”")
“Rrose Sélavy, was one of the pseudonyms of artist Marcel Duchamp. The name, a pun, sounds like the French phrase “Eros, c’est la vie”, which translates to English as “eros, that’s life”. It has also been read as “arroser la vie” (“to make a toast to life”). Why Not Sneeze, Rose Sélavy? (1921)
- Sélavy emerged in 1921 in a series of photographs by Man Ray of Duchamp dressed as a woman. Through the 1920s Man Ray and Duchamp collaborated on more photos of Sélavy. Duchamp later used the name as the byline on written material and signed several creations with it. Duchamp used the name in the title of at least one sculpture, Why Not Sneeze, Rose Sélavy?. The sculpture, a type of readymade called an assemblage, consists of an oral thermometer, a couple dozen small cubes of marble resembling sugar cubes inside a birdcage. She also appears on the label of Belle Haleine, Eau de Voilette, a 1921 readymade that is a perfume bottle in the original box. Duchamp also signed his film Anemic Cinema (1926) with the Sélavy name.
- From 1922 onwards the name Rrose Sélavy also started appearing in a series of aphorisms, puns and spoonerisms by the French surrealist poet Robert Desnos. Aphorism 13 paid homage to Marcel Duchamp: “Rrose Sélavy connaît bien le marchand du sel” [in English: “Rrose Sélavy knows the merchant of salt well”; in French the final words sound like Mar-champ Du-cel — Duchamp’s compiled notes are titled ‘Salt Seller’]. (Note that the ‘salt seller’ aphorism - “mar-chand-du-sel” - is a phonetic rearrangement of the syllables in the artist’s actual name: “mar-cel-du-champ.”) In 1939 a collection of these aphorisms was published under the name of Rrose Sélavy, entitled Poils et coups de pieds en tous genres.”
* Marcel Duchamp, Air de Paris, 1919-1964. Réplique réalisée sous la direction de Marcel Duchamp, par la Galerie Schwarz, à Milan, en 1964, Original créé à Paris, en décembre 1919, Quatrième version du ready-made, verre et bois, 14,5 x 8,5 x 8,5 cm
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Dada fut la pointe extrême de la protestation contre l’aspect physique de la peinture. C’était une attitude métaphysique. Il était intimement et consciemment mélé à la « littérature ». C’était une espèce de nihilisme pour lequel j’éprouve encore une grand sympathie. C’était un moyen de sortir d’un état d’esprit - d’éviter d’être influencé par son milieu immédiat, ou par le passé : de s’éloigner des clichés - de s’affranchir. La force de vacuité de Dada fut très salutaire. Dada vous dit : « N’oubliez pas que vous n’êtes pas aussi vide que nous le pensez! » d’habitude un peintre confesse qu’il a ses jalon. Il va d’un jalon à l’autre. En fait, il est l’esclave de ses jalon - même s’ils sont contemporains. Marcel Duchamp, Duchamp du signe, Paris, Flammarion, 1975, 1994, p. 172. Propos, Propos en anglais recueillis pas James Johnson Sweney in The Bulletin of the Museum of Modern Art, vol. III, n° 45, New Yorks, 1946, pp. 19-21.
