Artists
Related: About this forumHere is a piece acquired at an auction, attributed to Marcel Duchamp...
It's a two-sided piece: the front being a turn of the 19th-to-20th Century sheet music cover, altered by a combination of cut and pasted collage, with hand painted gouache or watercolor executed in a cubist style, with an obviously fake "Picasso" signature.
The back is the same sheet music - which would have originally been the actual front - unaltered, with the exception of the pen and ink attribution and signature, which appears to be "Rrose Selavy" but actually Marcel Duchamp himself. The Duchamp writing/signatures appear to match known examples of Duchamp.
Duchamp was famous for his fakery, his "readymades," and for challenging the viewer to accept his altered version(s) of reality.
Sheet music at this point in time was the most popular means of publishing music. It predated radio and audio recording as a means of disseminating music to the masses, like streaming today...except you had to play the music yourself!
stuffmatters
(2,576 posts)GReedDiamond
(5,371 posts)appalachiablue
(42,908 posts)- Marcel Duchamp as 'Rrose Selavy,' one of his alter egos, 1921, photo by Man Ray.
https://smithsonianassociates.org/Ticketing/tickets/marcel-duchamp-enfant-terrible-and-innovative-genius
lunatica
(53,410 posts)Quirky. I was momentarily fooled that it was a Picasso. Thanks!