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Marcel Duchamp's Boîte-en-valise: The Museum of Metamorphosis

Close-up of the right pull-out [tirette] of a series B Boîte

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Contents of this annotation:
1. Close-up of the right pull-out [tirette] of a series B Boîte
2. Boîte-en-valise II/XX, at the National Galleries, Scotland
3. Boîte (Series B) at the Centre Pompidou Tombstone, translated from French: Marcel Duchamp (1887, France - 1968, France), 1936-1941, La Boîte-en-valise; Object; Brown leather attaché case containing a system of elements folding out into space, including reproductions and miniature objects which together (68 or 69 items) constitute a scaled-down museum representing the nearly complete œuvre of Marcel Duchamp between 1910 and 1937. Black and white and color reproductions on paper, sometimes varnished, cut or stamped, on acetate, photographs and miniatures in glass, oilcloth and porcelain; Supports: plywood, leather, cardboard, copper; Works: black and white or color reproductions on paper (varnished, cut, and stamped) and on acetate, photographs, miniatures in glass, oilcloth and porcelain; 40,5 x 37 x 9,5 cm; Series B, assembled in New York during the war by Joseph Cornell, Xenia Cage and Patricia Matta Cane. Contains 68 items? Acquisition, 2003, Centre Pompidou, Paris
Contents of this annotation:
1. Close-up of the right pull-out [tirette] of a series B Boîte
Contents of this annotation:
1. Close-up of the right pull-out [tirette] of a series B Boîte

(7) Brenna Campbell, Élodie Lévêque, and Erin Jue, “Marcel Duchamp’s Boîtes-en-valise: Collaboration and Conservation,” Studies in Conservation 57, no. sup1 (2012): S52-S60 for an appraisal of the Boîte's physical change over time; Bonk, Marcel Duchamp: The Box in a Valise, 207–9 and Campbell, Lévêque, and Jue, S59-S60 for the evidence to suggest that Duchamp did not foresee or intend the Boîte's deterioration.

Click on the close-up image of the reproduction of Glissière [Glider] to read more about how Duchamp responded to physical change in the Boîte during his lifetime.