''Why not Sneeze, Rose Sélavy?'' is a 1921 "
readymade" sculpture 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 ...
. Specifically, Duchamp considered this to be an "assisted Readymade", this being because the original objects of which the work is made up had been altered by the artist.
[Philadelphia Museum of Art, Modern and Contemporary Art; ''Why Not Sneeze, Rose Sélavy? 1921''](_blank)
/ref> They consist of a birdcage
A birdcage (or bird cage) is a cage designed to house birds as pets.
Antique (or antique-style) birdcages are often popular as collectors' items or as household decor but most are not suitable for housing live birds, being too small, improper ...
, 152 white cubes (resembling sugar cubes, but made of marble
Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite. Marble is typically not foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the term ''marble'' refers to metamorphose ...
), a medical thermometer
A medical thermometer (also called clinical thermometer) is a device which is used for measuring human or animal body temperature. The tip of the thermometer is inserted into the mouth under the tongue (''oral'' or ''sub-lingual temperature''), ...
, a piece of cuttlebone
Cuttlebone, also known as cuttlefish bone, is a hard, brittle internal structure (an internal shell) found in all members of the family Sepiidae, commonly known as cuttlefish, within the cephalopods. In other cephalopod families it is calle ...
, and a tiny porcelain
Porcelain () is a ceramic material made by heating substances, generally including materials such as kaolinite, in a kiln to temperatures between . The strength and translucence of porcelain, relative to other types of pottery, arises main ...
dish. The birdcage is made of painted metal and contains several wooden perches.
Explanation
About the sculpture, Duchamp said:
:"It is a Readymade in which the sugar is changed to marble. It is sort of a mythological effect."
An explanation for the piece given by Duchamp involves the coldness of the marble cubes, the "heat-giving" properties of the sugar cubes, the thermometer evaluating temperature, and the sneezing that can result from cold. In commenting on the title Duchamp pointed out that there is a ''"dissociation gap"'' between sneezing at will and sneezing against one's will.
André Breton wrote about ''Why not Sneeze, Rose Sélavy?'':
:"I have in mind the occasion when Marcel Duchamp got hold of some friends to show them a cage which seemed to have no birds in it, but to be half-full of lumps of sugar. He asked them to lift the cage and they were surprised at its heaviness. What they had taken for lumps of sugar were really small lumps of marble which at great expense Duchamp had had sawn up specially for the purpose. The trick in my opinion is no worse than any other, and I would even say that it is worth nearly all the tricks of art put together."
See also
*Rrose Sélavy
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 ...
References
External links
''The Writings of Marcel Duchamp'', by Marcel Duchamp, Michel Sanouillet, Elmer Peterson; Da Capo Press, 1973
at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Why Not Sneeze, Rose Selavy?
Marcel Duchamp works
1921 sculptures
Sculptures in Pennsylvania