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Marcel Duchamp
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==Rrose Sélavy== [[File:Label for the Belle Haleine cropped.png|thumb|left|200px|''Rrose Sélavy'' (Marcel Duchamp), 1921 photograph by Man Ray, art direction by Marcel Duchamp, silver print, {{cvt|5+7/8|×|3+7/8|in|mm}}, [[Philadelphia Museum of Art]]]] [[File:Monte Carlo Bond 1924.jpg|thumb|Monte Carlo Bond with signatures from Rrose Sélavy and Marcel Duchamp, issued 1 November 1924]] "Rrose Sélavy", also spelled Rose Sélavy, was one of Duchamp's pseudonyms. The name, a [[pun]], sounds like the French phrase {{lang|fr|[[Eros (concept)|Eros]], c'est la vie}}, which may be translated as "Eros, such is life." It has also been read as {{lang|fr|arroser la vie}} ("to make a toast to life"). Sélavy emerged in 1921 in a series of photographs by Man Ray showing 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?]]'' (1921). The sculpture, a type of readymade called an [[assemblage (art)|assemblage]], consists of an [[Medical thermometer#Oral|oral thermometer]], a couple of dozen small cubes of [[marble]] resembling sugar cubes and a [[cuttlefish bone]] inside a [[birdcage]]. Sélavy also appears on the label of ''[[Belle Haleine, Eau de Voilette]]'' (1921), a readymade that is a perfume bottle in the original box. Duchamp also signed his film ''Anémic Cinéma'' (1926) with the Sélavy name. The inspiration for the name Rrose Sélavy has been thought to be [[Belle da Costa Greene]], [[J. P. Morgan]]'s librarian at [[The Morgan Library & Museum]] (formerly The Pierpont Morgan Library) who, following his death, became the Library's director, working there for a total of forty-three years. Empowered by J. P. Morgan, and then by his son Jack, Greene built the collection buying and selling rare [[manuscripts]], books and art.<ref>[http://www.toutfait.com/online_journal_details.php?postid=866 Duchamp Bottles Belle Greene: Just Desserts For His Canning] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121027213202/http://www.toutfait.com/online_journal_details.php?postid=866 |date=27 October 2012}} by Bonnie Jean Garner.</ref> Rrose Sélavy, and the other pseudonyms Duchamp used, may be read as a comment on the fallacy of romanticizing the conscious individuality or subjectivity of the artist, a theme that is also a prominent subtext of the [[Readymades of Marcel Duchamp|readymades]]. Duchamp said in an interview, "You think you're doing something entirely your own, and a year later you look at it and you see actually the roots of where your art comes from without your knowing it at all."<ref>{{cite book |last=Tomkins |first=Calvin |title=Marcel Duchamp: The Afternoon Interviews |year=2013 |publisher=ARTBOOK {{!}} D.A.P. |location=New York, NY |isbn=978-1936440399 |page=49}}</ref> The [[Pérez Art Museum Miami]], in Florida, holds the piece ''Boîte-en-valise (De ou par Marcel Duchamp ou Rrose Sélavy),'' or in English, ''Box in a Valise (From or by Marcel Duchamp or Rrose Sélavy)'' created from 1941–61, in the museum's collection.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Boîte-en-valise (De ou par Marcel Duchamp ou Rrose Sélavy) (Box in a Valise (From or by Marcel Duchamp or Rrose Sélavy)) • Pérez Art Museum Miami |url=https://www.pamm.org/en/artwork/2000.22a-r |access-date=2023-09-05 |website=Pérez Art Museum Miami |language=en-US}}</ref> From 1922, the name Rrose Sélavy also started appearing in a series of [[aphorism]]s, puns, and [[spoonerism]]s by the French [[surrealism|surrealist]] poet [[Robert Desnos]]. Desnos tried to portray Rrose Sélavy as a long-lost aristocrat and rightful queen of France. Aphorism 13 paid homage to Marcel Duchamp: {{lang|fr|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. Note that the "salt seller" aphorism – "mar-chand-du-sel" – is a phonetic [[anagram]] of the artist's name: "mar-cel-du-champ". (Duchamp's compiled notes are entitled, "Salt Seller".) In 1939 a collection of these aphorisms was published under the name of Rrose Sélavy, entitled, {{lang|fr|Poils et coups de pieds en tous genres}}.
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