Marcel DUCHAMP offers his ready-mades to André BRETON

Marcel DUCHAMP (1887.1968)

A set of two autograph letters signed to André Breton.

Four octavo pages in total. Autograph envelopes, stamped and postmarked.

New York. November 9, 1959 and November 20, 1959.

"So instead, I'm sending you two little aprons by plane (...). One is male and the other female."

A formidable and important collection of two letters from Duchamp to his surrealist friend, evoking for the first time the creation of the famous Ready-mades " Couple of Aprons " which were included in the deluxe version of the Boîte alerte of the International Surrealist Exhibition , organized in 1959 by André Breton at the Galerie Daniel Cordier, in Paris.

New York. November 9, 1959:

"Dear André, first, my new address [mentioned at the top of the letter] where we are in the middle of moving. Thank you for your long, very clear, and very encouraging letter – the telegram: I hope to send you a text soon that you can have printed on standard postal forms – The item I mentioned to you is not a nut as I thought I remembered, but a double metal shell, too heavy to consider sending 250 of, and above all, too expensive; not to mention the time it would take to make. So, instead, I am sending you, by airmail, two small aprons (designed to protect hands from the excessive heat of pots and pans on the stove). One is male and the other female and would also be too expensive, but could be made in 250 copies in Paris in a few days and at a lower cost. If you like the idea. Please keep me informed with at least a few words, and see you soon, my 'telegram.' Affectionately to you both from Teeny and myself. Marcel."

New York. November 20, 1959:

"Dear André, thank you for your long letter this morning – I immediately cabled you the text of the telegram, a copy of which I enclose here. For the signatures on the 20 aprons (40 signatures + 20 more for immediate collaborators), the simplest solution would be for me to sign on a small silk (satin) ribbon that could be sewn on by machine or by hand. Unless you instruct me otherwise, I will look for a narrow ribbon that can be cut after being signed 60 times – and I will send it to you by airmail. Naturally, please use the stamp whose impression you sent me as needed – I look forward to hearing from you soon. Affectionately, from both of us. Marcel."

On the occasion of the International Surrealist Exhibition – EROS – organized by André Breton at the Daniel Cordier gallery from December 15, 1959 to February 15, 1960, Marcel Duchamp created Couple of Aprons , also famous as Couple of Laundry Aprons , a pair of Ready-mades intended for the twenty copies of the deluxe edition of the exhibition's catalogue-object, Boîte-Alerte.

The artist provocatively chose to add to these kitchen gloves, found in a New York bazaar, masculine and feminine attributes made of sewn fabric and fur. While he may seem to be ironically alluding to the scandalous reputation traditionally associated with laundresses, Duchamp is primarily addressing eroticism in a unique way. As evidenced by his domestic function, *Couple of Aprons *, male and female forms are reconciled in an imaginary space that merges them—his artwork—and it is this principle of fusion that, for Duchamp, evokes eroticism.

Like Masculin/Féminin , an object presented by Mimi Parent for this same exhibition – a man's shirt and jacket combined with a tie made from his own hair – the present work stands as a true manifesto of this last major surrealist exhibition, perceived as the ultimate act of transgression against the moral, political and social order of the time.

Marcel Duchamp, letter sent to André Breton, November 20, 1959, New York (M. Duchamp cited in J. Gough-Cooper and J. Caumont, Ephemerides on and about Marcel Duchamp and Rrose Sélavy , 1887-1968 , London, 1993).