MARCEL DUCHAMP'S "Rrose SELAVY."   Term Paper ID:30564 Click to get this paper

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Paper Abstract: Describes the artist's performance of Rrose Selavy. The Rrose persona. Its network of meanings. Relationship of Rrose to DuChamp's readymades. Commodity aspect of readymades. Postmodernism. Visual portrayal of women. Boundaries of sexual differences. History and ideas of assisted and semi-readymades. Notion of artistic function. Cites specific examples. Paper Introduction: Marcel Duchamp's project is as complex, ambiguous, and rich as anything undertaken by any artist of the twentieth century. One of the most elaborate networks of meaning started by Duchamp derives from his 'performance' of Rrose Selavy, the female personification first used as a signature, mocked up in a series of posed drag photographs by Man Ray, and then persisting as an alter ego for Duchamp in many subsequent projects. The spectacle of a male artist who adopts a female persona and employs 'her' in the titles of various works, as the 'author' of other pieces, and simply as a sort of working fiction in his life raises questions of many kinds. Certainly the eroticization of the communication between artist and spectator, the performative nature of gender, the nature of the patriarchal art system and art history, and the meaning of authorship of works of art are all implicated in Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. AsMolesworth has recently pointed out, the early readymades were 'sited' inan unusual manner. Michel Sanouillet and Elmer Peterson. in fact acomplete anesthesia" (Duchamp 141). The custom-made Fresh Widow wascopyrighted to her, the perfume bottle mock-up made by Duchamp andfeaturing a Man Ray portrait of Rrose Selavy Belle Helaine, Eau de Voilette(1921) shows her "turned entrepreneur," and Why Not Sneeze Rose Selavy?(1921) was a commission for Dorothea Dreier, sister of his important patronKatherine Dreier (Ades et al. In another sense what the artist in the refigured commodities of thereadymades saw was the pleasure that was inherent in the commodity-as-commodity. Rrose Selavy, however, is "eros, c'estla vie," or "eros, that's life" and the infusion of this sentiment signalsgreater attention to the problem of esthetic pleasure--whether theproduction of such pleasure was a goal of the individual work or the pointof its wit. New York: Whitney Museum, 1999). This entails, therefore, adescription of the relationship of Rrose to the readymades which wereinitiated in 1913 and became a major part of Duchamp's work within the nextfew years. The threat that male artists perceived in all this wasoften articulated in a response to the so-called New Woman. Art in America 82.9 (1994): 35-36.Molesworth, Helen. In theformer case the (mis)appropriation of commodities by 'singularizing' themas works of art is a defiant gesture toward the manner in which capitalistproduction promotes (indeed, depends upon) the regularity of the infinitelyreplicable objects with utilitarian qualities or, at least the perceptionby the consumer that they possess such qualities. A working definition of the readymade is provided by Naumann whodescribes them as "commonplace prefabricated objects, isolated from theirfunctional context and, with or without alteration, elevated to the statusof art by a mere act of declaration" (39). This notion proceeded from the factthat women were the principle consumers in this new kind of economy whilethe bodies of women were the indicators of value and embodied the promiseof (erotic) gratification in the presentation of goods on the market, i.e.,in advertising. Photographyenabled the rising bourgeoisie to "represent itself" via these commodities(luxuries) which not only conferred status but also did so by displayingtheir female subjects as consumers (Jones, Postmodernism 164). New York Dada 1915-23. It is interesting to note that the copyright on the work mostobviously attached to this notion of blocking or discouraging the gaze isheld by Rose Selavy. Francis Naumann and Beth Venn. But the New Woman was a directed threat (at least for those whoperceived 'her' as a threat) who was enabled by the change in the economicstructures of society. But it seems clear thatby divesting the objects in the readymades of their utilitarian functionsthrough the act of situating them in the discourse of art Duchamp'scritique extended to "the capitalist field of exchange on the one hand, andits subset, the art market, on the other" (Joselit, Infinite 72). Nor was there much chance, at thispoint, that works such as the Fresh Widow were going to be left behind whenDuchamp moved or thrown out by someone else. Eds. Thisengendered a perception that "the commodification of everyday life"constituted a "feminization" of culture against which male artists (andothers) reacted (Jones, Eros 24 ). There were, however, several ways in whichDuchamp's commodity-critique was conducted. 238-47.---. This act, and the spectator's reaction (whether or not s/hequestioned the process), "made it clear that the idea of 'Art' was producedcontextually" (Molesworth 51). As Jones notes, there was adistinctive "eroticizing thrust" to Dada in New York which appears to haveresulted from the traumatized state in which World War I left Europeanmasculinity; "a masculinity already weakened by the mushrooming bureaucracyof the increasingly alienated capitalist regime" (Eros 24 ). It is noteworthy, of course, that this altered mode of productionarrives along with Rrose Selavy. It has beenpointed out that "photography both becomes and promotes the commodity mostforcefully in bourgeois culture through the image of woman" (Jones,Postmodernism 164). Her "gender-ambiguous" presence possessed a threatening, "even masculinized eroticism"that signaled the collapse of the boundaries between the spherestraditionally occupied by men and women (Jones, Eros 249). One of themost elaborate networks of meaning started by Duchamp derives from his'performance' of Rrose Selavy, the female personification first used as asignature, mocked up in a series of posed drag photographs by Man Ray, andthen persisting as an alter ego for Duchamp in many subsequent projects.The spectacle of a male artist who adopts a female persona and employs'her' in the titles of various works, as the 'author' of other pieces, andsimply as a sort of working fiction in his life raises questions of manykinds. "Work Avoidance: The Everyday Life of Marcel Duchamp's Readymades" Art Journal 57.4 (1998): 5 -73.Naumann, Francis. While he expanded the class of readymadesto include 'assisted, rectified, and even semi-readymades (in which partswere custom made for or by Duchamp), they nonetheless had in commonmaterials that were recognizable and mass-produced. Duchamp reveals himself, disguised perhaps as Rrose Selavy,as one who does exactly what has been demonstrated by the readymades, thatis the "unveiling of the status of the art object as a commodity, producedand distributed within an institutional framework that is very much likeany other marketplace"--with the exception of its emphasis on the (ironicterm) 'unique commodity' (Joselit, Duchamp's 35). Indeed the early readymades were nearly as free tocirculate back into the commodity system as 'real' objects. Infinite Regress: Marcel Duchamp 191 -1941. This essay features a briefdiscussion of the commodity critique in the readymades, a survey of theuses of Rrose Selavy, and analysis of the commodification of Rrose, ofwomen, and of art that are inherent in her construction. Eds. But, as withany pronouncement from Duchamp, there was nothing definitive about this.Certainly he anticipated the reaction of spectators who would wonder, asindeed they did, why anyone could not take anything and call it art. But, ifevidence is needed, this process went back to the earliest stages of theindustrialization of the Western nations. New York: Abrams, 1994. The very sharply drawn distinction that emerged between thegreat seriousness of the 'male' (insofar as clothes made the man) and thepreservation in female dress of sensuality and play was one of the mostimportant institutionalized means of warding off the destabilization ofgender identity that emerged from such industrialization-associated trendsas increasing female demands for control of property (capital, in thebourgeois case) and the fact that lower class women now left theirtraditional domain to work as the equals (in work, though not in pay orstatus) of men in the factories. On the onehand, there was photographic portraiture and, on the other, there was thepresentation of the female-as-inducement in advertising. Duchamp's readymades were "an initially idly conceived concept" thatturned into a very significant part of his production which he called "themost important single idea to come out of my work" (quoted in Ades, Cox &Hopkins 152). Ades, Cox and Hopkins try to make a case forthe sensual appeal inherent in readymades such as Comb (1916) or evenBicycle Wheel (1913) but, in fact, the appeal to the senses--or even ironicreference to it--is not a real factor until the assisted and semi-readymades with which Rrose was so often associated. But its origin in thataspect of Duchamp's work is foundational and consideration of thecommodification of Rrose Selavy provides threads that lead toperformativity of gender, erotic interchange with the spectator,authorship, and many other concerns. The displayof fashionable attire in the Rrose photographs, along with the seductivelycoy gestures and glances, clearly situates both the photographs ascommodity (ironically, of course, within the art system) and 'her' as acommodity in the sense of functioning as an object of desire and in thesense of being contained by the approved codes of gender. 2 8-17.---. As Duchamp saidin his only extended explanation of the readymades, the sentences heinscribed on them "instead of describing the object like a title [were]meant to carry the mind of the spectator towards other regions more verbal"(Duchamp 141). To discuss only one facet ofRrose Selavy, therefore, taps only a small portion of the riches itcontains. New York: Da Capo, 1973.Jones, Amelia. Thus the complete indifference to the esthetic element ceased to betrue of the readymades when Duchamp began the semi-readymades starting withFresh Widow (192 ), which also marked the first appearance of Rrose (orRose as she was first called) Selavy. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1999.Blessing, Jennifer. Postmodernism and the En-Gendering of Marcel Duchamp. The drive for female suffrage and many otheraspects of women's behavior threatened to destabilize gender roles andtheir confinement to their proper spheres. First of all the commodity critique derived from Duchamp's strategyof "seeming to elide the practice of art with the consumption of mass-produced commodities [and] the self-reflexive allegory of reification thatthe readymade performs" has been seen as part of Duchamp's disdain formerely 'retinal' art (Joselit, Infinite 71-72). Butthis hardly exhausted these presentations and the fact that they areperfectly recognizable commodities immediately suggests that this too is anaspect of the critique. Clearly, of course, the Rrose practice extended beyond the bounds ofthe commodity critique aspect of the readymades. Duchamp was to say later thatthe readymade could be seen "as a sort of irony, or an attempt at showingthe futility of trying to define art" (quoted in Naumann 41). 161). The inclusion, for example, of photographs of suchworks as In Advance of the Broken Arm and Hat Rack (1917) in hisretrospective Boite-en-valise (1941) "and then to color them, their sepiatones rendering them 'historical'" indicates that "during the initial'invention' of the readymades his studio was their major site of reception"(Molesworth 51). The irony is heightened, of course, by thenegative reaction of so much of the audience (indeed, the urinal ofFountain (1917) was, in a way, designed to be refused-to-be-seen). . Against this destabilization"social institutions worked to shore up the regulatory boundariesdetermining 'proper' gender roles" (Jones, Postmodernism 163). The quotidian natureof these objects was all that the non-artist related to until the artistwrought the transformation. Rrose is, of course, eminently "'proper' within contemporary visualcodes signifying the fashionable bourgeois female" and, as such, is thewoman-as-commodity embodied in bourgeois portrait photography (Jones,Postmodernism 166). Thisplayed elegantly upon the fact that by avoiding the "(presumed) unmediatedvisuality" of art Duchamp drew attention to "the way that meaning itself isactively produced by viewing and speaking subjects" (Molesworth 51). 166). Marcel Duchamp. This, as will be seen, was especially important in thecreation or use of Rrose Selavy. With its clear consciousness of the nature of thecommodification inherent in such photographic images, of course, "Duchamp'sgesture can be seen as an active parody of the feminine as the sexual, ascommodity" (Jones, Postmodernism 163). Certainly the eroticization of the communication between artist andspectator, the performative nature of gender, the nature of the patriarchalart system and art history, and the meaning of authorship of works of artare all implicated in Duchamp's masquerade. Jonespoints out that the "lesson" of Duchamp's semi-readymades "is that in factthere is no way out of the circuits of desire that capitalism puts intoplay" (Eros 243). In the case ofDuchamp's selection of objects that were adopted as readymades this kind ofpleasure was a rather limited aspect until he began to make the worksassociated with Rrose Selavy. But she also functions in the Belle Helaine, Eau deVoilette piece as an example of the commodification of the female inadvertising. The commodity-critique of the art market, however, seems to havegained emphasis as Duchamp progressed to the semi-readymades. Thereference to his abandonment of painting in this work has been remarkedsince the occlusion of light and sight seems to refer to the rejection ofthe 'window' on the world that was the object of Western painters since theRenaissance. This must, of course, have pleased Duchamp enormously. The notion originated with the fanciful attachment of aninverted bicycle wheel to a stool and the purchase of a Bottle Dryer (1914)that had the look to him of a "sculpture already made" (quoted in Ades etal. As Blessing notes, "the rise ofcapitalism and industrial rationalization was, in part, responsible for the'Great Masculine Renunciation' of flamboyance and ostentation in favor ofthe standardization" of the more sober styles of men's clothing thatemerged (2 ). Two of the most important means of ensuring that this distinction wasmaintained centered on the visual representation of women. New York: Guggenheim Museum, 1999.Duchamp, Marcel. Butwith the emergence of the semi-readymades there was a new note in so far asthey were unique works or, at least, even if they were susceptible toreplication this was not planned. With the acceptance of commissions,however, the entire practice was radically altered. It may be too much, asJoselit argues, to say that the readymades were intended merely to'replace' painting, since this puts a rather severe limitation on Duchamp'sexploration of the notion of the artist function. In a way she is, thereby, the author of the notion ofrejecting 'retinal' art (although the idea certainly preceded 192 ). Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1994.Joselit, David. And as he came to engage, for a time, in somethingverging on standard art practice--accepting commissions and, increasingly,crafting objects--Duchamp produced Rrose Selavy who, in a sense, was thereto 'take the rap,' as it were, for his becoming an artist per se:copyrighting his notion of anti-retinal art in Fresh Window, lending hername to the Dreier commission in Why Not Sneeze Rose Selavy?, and becominga producer of commodities herself in Belle Helaine, Eau de Voilette--anactivity analogous to the activity of the artist who produces an objectmeant to enter the stream of circulation of 'unique' commodities known asworks of art. Jones asks how radicalthe objects and pictures of the New York Dadaists, "that pretend to destroythe aesthetic and its bourgeois pretensions," can really be since New YorkDada "itself becomes a greased wheel in the machine of commodity culturethat is art history and its institutions" (Eros 242-43). This tendency was certainly embodied in the twoseries of photographs created by Man Ray and his 'model' Duchamp in 1921and 1924 in which Rrose Selavy was given representation. What is parodied, in other words,is the concerted effort of society to reinforce the boundaries of sexualdifference via the use of the 'feminine'--the boundary whose transgressionis the origin of the commodity Rrose Selavy. "Eros, That's Life, or the Baroness' Penis." Mischief: Dada Invades New York. This essay discusses Rrose Selavy as an aspect of Duchamp'scritique, or commentary, or artist's reaction to the rise of the commodityas a central fact of twentieth-century life. For this piece Duchamp had acarpenter construct a French window frame and had pieces of black leather,polished like glass, applied to the outsides of the window panes. The word was introduced in this connection in a letter to hissister Suzanne in which he requested that she paint an inscription on thebottlerack and sign it [after] Marcel Duchamp." The notion developed withthe first American readymade, In Advance of the Broken Arm (1915), createdthrough the purchase, inscribing, and signing ([from] Marcel Duchamp) of asnow shovel. There is, however, a third way in which the commodity critique worksand it too is largely attached to the emergence of Rrose and is the sourceof the commodification of Rrose Selavy. This form of signature meant that the observer was tounderstand "that this item had come from him, rather than having been madeby him," thereby shifting the emphasis from the artist's production to theartist's standing (Naumann 39). 146). Marcel Duchamp's project is as complex, ambiguous, and rich asanything undertaken by any artist of the twentieth century. The Rrose persona, which began in 192 , falls into the categoryof the 'assisted' and 'semi-readymades,' making her first appearance as thecopyright holder named on Duchamp's Fresh Widow (192 ). . "Duchamp's Legacy: Postmodernism and the En-Gendering of Marcel Duchamp by Amelia Jones [review]. Nearly all theoriginal hat racks, bottle dryers, stools, and coat racks were lost andwere only replicated when the demand arose for their display in museums inthe 196 s. Butan essential point--at least as far as the critique of art production wasconcerned--was that, in fact, everyone did not do so. The Writings of Marcel Duchamp. Duchamp also extendedthe readymade notion "to include even words, oral and writtencommunication," and their existence as recognizable 'things' in commoncirculation made them eminently qualified for inclusion--even though theyalso added layers of meaning to the concept (Naumann 41). In the latter case the'art market' is exposed as a site of exchange that is even more arbitraryin its manufacturing of value than the capitalist-industrial system'smanufacturing of desire that produces the consumer society. Rrose is a Rrose is a Rrose: Performance in Photography. Indeed, as Duchampsaid of the readymades, the choices were "never dictated by estheticdelectation [but] on a reaction of visual indifference . Cambridge: MIT P, 1998. Marx argued that commodity fetishism ("the tendency to ascribeto ordinary objects quasi-human powers and desires") was caused by thecapitalist production of commodities and the consumer society whichgenerate false needs "whereby the consumer is seduced into a purchase bypromises of (erotic) satisfaction" (Ades et al. But Duchamp was,of course, perfectly aware of this and it figures in his practice. Works CitedAdes, Dawn, Neil Cox and David Hopkins. The posed, alluring 'society' photograph (based, ofcourse, on the images propagated by the Winterhalters, Sargents, and other'society' painters among the wealthiest patrons) both became a commodityand commodified women. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.