''Apolinère Enameled'' was painted in 1916–17 by

Marcel Duchamp Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (, , ; 28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, and conceptual art. Duchamp is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Picasso ...

, as a heavily altered version of an

advertisement Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a product or service. Advertising aims to put a product or service in the spotlight in hopes of drawing it attention from consumers. It is typically used to promote a ...

for paint ("Sapolin Enamel"). The picture depicts a girl painting a bed-frame with white enamelled paint. The depiction of the frame deliberately includes conflicting perspective lines, to produce an

impossible object An impossible object (also known as an impossible figure or an undecidable figure) is a type of optical illusion that consists of a two- dimensional figure which is instantly and naturally understood as representing a projection of a three-d ...

. To emphasise the ''deliberate'' impossibility of the shape, a piece of the frame is missing. The piece is sometimes referred to as Duchamp's "impossible bed" painting. ''Apolinère'' is a play-on-words referencing the poet, writer and art critic

Guillaume Apollinaire Guillaume Apollinaire) of the Wąż coat of arms. (; 26 August 1880 – 9 November 1918) was a French poet, playwright, short story writer, novelist, and art critic of Polish descent. Apollinaire is considered one of the foremost poets of the ...

, a close associate of Duchamp during the

Cubist Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture. In Cubist artwork, objects are analyzed, broken up and reassemble ...

adventure. Apollinaire wrote about Duchamp (and others) in his book ''

The Cubist Painters, Aesthetic Meditations ''Les Peintres Cubistes, Méditations Esthétiques'' (English, ''The Cubist Painters, Aesthetic Meditations''), is a book written by Guillaume Apollinaire between 1905 and 1912, published in 1913. This was the third major text on Cubism; following ...

'' of 1913.Herschel Browning Chipp, Peter Selz, ''Theories of Modern Art: A Source Book by Artists and Critics'', University of California Press, 1968, pp. 221–248

References

External links

Philadelphia Museum of Art
Impossible objects 1916 paintings Marcel Duchamp works Paintings of children Guillaume Apollinaire {{20C-painting-stub

See also

References

External links