Marcel Duchamp's Boîte-en-valise: The Museum of MetamorphosisMain MenuIntroductionThe Museum of MetamorphosisCatalogue essayThe Seven Series of BoîtesBoîtes in Museum Collections around the World…and OnlineFurther Reading[bibliography page]Lauren Rooney597ff088ef1db884d9e8445c7e06bd004b6c1250
Color Guide for the Top Half of the Large Glass—an Artifact of the Pochoir Process—included in MoMA's Boîte-en-valise
12023-05-04T04:32:52-07:00Lauren Rooney597ff088ef1db884d9e8445c7e06bd004b6c1250427004plain2023-06-20T13:53:58-07:00Lauren Rooney597ff088ef1db884d9e8445c7e06bd004b6c1250In the pochoir process, artisans cut stencils in zinc foil corresponding to distinctly colored areas of an image, then carefully apply color through these stencils to a black-and-white collotype print of that image in accordance with the sequence of color-layers they have determined.1 Because all the paintings that Duchamp intended to reproduce in this way resided with his patrons in America, the Arensbergs and Katherine Dreier, Duchamp traveled overseas to inspect each one and record detailed notes on its coloring that enabled him to produce a color guide for the pochoir artisans for each reproduction.2 Some of these color guides counted among the “originals”—bonus items, usually artifacts of the reproductive process—that Duchamp included in each of the twenty-four boxes comprising his first, deluxe series, including this one, which he gifted to MoMA in 1943.3
Contents of this annotation:
1media/Screen Shot 2023-03-01 at 9.38.04 PM_thumb.png2023-03-31T13:00:33-07:00Lauren Rooney597ff088ef1db884d9e8445c7e06bd004b6c1250Boîte-en-valise (De ou par Marcel Duchamp ou Rrose Sélavy) [IX/XX, given to the museum by Duchamp in 1942]3Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968), 1935-1941, Mixed media, box, 40.7 x 38.1 x 10.2 cm., MoMA, New York, NY.media/Screen Shot 2023-03-01 at 9.38.04 PM.pngplain2023-05-04T04:31:10-07:00MoMALauren Rooney597ff088ef1db884d9e8445c7e06bd004b6c1250