Marcel déchiravit—"Marcel tore this quickly"—reads the inscription of this work made for deluxe copies of Robert Lebel’s Sur Marcel Duchamp. Placing a specially fabricated zinc template of his silhouette against squares of origami paper, Duchamp tore 137 self-portraits by hand, one for each copy. The torn sheets were then mounted on velvet-covered paperboard and attached as frontispieces. Although The Met’s self-portrait is numbered differently than other examples from the deluxe edition, traces of reddish brown linen on the underside match that edition’s red linen case, indicating that it was likely detached from such a box. Self-Portrait in Profile became one of Duchamp’s best known late works, appearing in exhibition posters and inspiring homages by Jasper Johns and Ray Johnson.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Self-Portrait in Profile
Artist:Marcel Duchamp (American (born France), Blanville 1887–1968 Neuilly-sur-Seine)
Inscription: Inscribed (lower right on paper, in black ink): marcel dechiravit
Marking: Printed on white paper (lower left, in green): 4
William S. Lieberman, New York (by 2002–d. 2005; his bequest to MMA)
Pasadena Art Museum. "Marcel Duchamp: A Retrospective Exhibition," October 8–November 3, 1963, no. 106 (lent by Mr. and Mrs. William Copley, New York) [this edition?].
Washington D.C. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. "Inventing Marcel Duchamp: The Dynamics of Portraiture," March 27–August 2, 2009, no. 58.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Paper Trails: Selected Works from the Collection, 1934–2001," July 19–November 27, 2011, no catalogue.
Robert Lebel. Marcel Duchamp. New York, 1959, p. 176, no. 202, ill. p. iii.
Walter Hopps et al. Marcel Duchamp: Ready-Mades, Etc. (1913–1964). Exh. cat., Galleria Schwarz. Milan, 1964, p. 82, no. 31, ill. frontispiece (ed. no. 58).
Richard Hamilton. Not Seen and/or Less Seen of/by Marcel Duchamp / Rrose Selavy 1904–64. Mary Sisler Collection. Exh. cat., Cordier & Ekstrom, Inc. New York, 1965, unpaginated, no. M27 (ed. 52).
Arturo Schwarz. Marcel Duchamp: 66 Creative Years From the First Painting to the Last Drawing, Over 260 Items. Exh. cat., Galleria Schwarz. Milan, 1972, p. 69, no. 156, ill. (erroneously ill. as no. 159) [unknown edition].
Anne d'Harnoncourt and Kynaston McShine. Marcel Duchamp. Exh. cat., Philadelphia Museum of Art. Philadelphia, 1973, p. 38, no. 269 [not this edition?].
Patricia Kaplan. "On Jasper Johns' 'According to What'." Art Journal 35 (Spring 1976), pp. 247–48.
Jean Clair. Marcel Duchamp: Catalogue raisonné. Vol. 2, L'Oeuvre de Marcel Duchamp. Paris, 1977, p. 131, no. 160, ill. (collection Robert Lebel).
Robert Lebel. Sur Marcel Duchamp. Paris, 1996, p. 176, no. 202, ill. p. iii.
Arturo Schwarz. The Complete Works of Marcel Duchamp. 3rd rev. ed. (1st ed., 1969). New York, 1997, vol. 2, pp. 811–12, no. 557, ill.
Francis M. Naumann. Marcel Duchamp: The Art of Making Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. Amsterdam, 1999, pp. 188–89, 196, 219, 277, fig. 7.19 (not this edition).
Marcel Duchamp (American (born France), Blanville 1887–1968 Neuilly-sur-Seine)
after 1947
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