Without its paper wrapper, Duchamp's cigarette becomes something else entirely-a potent signifier of sexuality stripped bare; a naked assemblage of chance in which the liberated tobacco rejoices in disarray. It may also represent a visual pun on the term découpage, which literally means "cutting out" but is more broadly defined as a mixing of elements-for instance, the text and images in George Hugnet's book of poemes-découpages for which Duchamp created this image. In the book, a page of text and symbols in different typefaces is juxtaposed with pasted images and scraps of text from other printed media. Poetry and collage work together-or against each other-to simultaneously create and undermine meaning through a seemingly random grouping of disparate elements.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Cigarette
Artist:Marcel Duchamp (American (born France), Blanville 1887–1968 Neuilly-sur-Seine)
Date:1936
Medium:Gelatin silver print with applied color
Dimensions:30.0 x 20.7 cm (11 13/16 x 8 1/8 in.)
Classification:Photographs
Credit Line:Ford Motor Company Collection, Gift of Ford Motor Company and John C. Waddell, 1987
Georges Hugnet to Kolodny; Frank Kolodny to MacGill; [Pace/MacGill to Waddell, October 1, 1985]; John C. Waddell
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The New Vision: Photography between the World Wars. The Ford Motor Company Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 23–December 31, 1989.
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. "The New Vision: Photography between the World Wars. The Ford Motor Company Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art," February 28–April 22, 1990.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art. "The New Vision: Photography between the World Wars. The Ford Motor Company Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art," May 10–July 15, 1990.
High Museum of Art. "The New Vision: Photography between the World Wars. The Ford Motor Company Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art," February 5–April 28, 1991.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. "The New Vision: Photography between the World Wars. The Ford Motor Company Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art," June 8–August 4, 1991.
IVAM, Centre Julio Gonzalez, Valencia. "The New Vision, IVAM, Centre Julio Gonzalez, Valencia," January 20, 1995–March 26, 1995.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Johnson Gallery, Selections from the Collection 55," December 13, 2010–April 4, 2011.
Hambourg, Maria Morris. The New Vision: Photography between the World Wars, Ford Motor Company Collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1989. no. 120.
Orenstein, Nadine M., Jeff L. Rosenheim, and Stephen C. Pinson. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin: A Centennial Album: Drawings, Prints, and Photographs 74, no. 3 (Winter 2017). p. 48.
Marcel Duchamp (American (born France), Blanville 1887–1968 Neuilly-sur-Seine)
after 1947
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