Eros is Life (for Marcel Duchamp)

[Pierre Tavlitzki]

Obviously, Rrose Selavy actually existed, since she was invented by Marcel Duchamp. Consider the chronology.

In 1913 (I like that year in the history of art), Duchamp invented the ready-made, to recover a usual object and to present it as a work of art signed with an outlandish pseudonym. The first ready-made is a bicycle wheel.

Duchamp was also a fan of coining multiple puns with hidden meaning in French and English. LHOOQ is a ready-made of Mona Lisa, with a moustache and a barbichette, 1919.

The following year, seeking a pseudonym to sign his ready-mades, Duchamp built Rrose Selavy, whose main meaning is "Eros, c'est la vie" (Eros is Life). To give a life to Rrose, the artist is photographed as a woman.

The Yves Saint-Laurent collection is the subject of an exhibition from January 30 to February 4 at Christie's in London, before being sold in Paris on February 23.

A ready-made for Rrose Selavy, dated 1921, estimated € 1 million, is highlighted there. Entitled Belle Haleine - Eau de Voilette (literally Beautiful Breath - Veil Water), it is a perfume bottle and its box. Duchamp changed the label, now decorated with a portrait of Rrose Selavy by Man Ray. I leave the French to appreciate this title, and I tell to others that the pun is multiple.

The humor in art is so rare ... that we can really consider this work as exceptional.

[Pierre Tavlitzki]

Christie's had waited until the pre-exhibition in London to express, almost as gossip, that this work by Duchamp was a masterpiece. It played well. They were convincing, and the buyers have followed.

The announced estimate did not matter. Our ready-made has been sold € 8.9 million including premium.