Broodthaers Duchamp/Magritte tee

In the catalogue for his Düsseldorf exhibition in 1972, Broodthaers reproduced Duchamp’s Fountain, 1917, and Magritte’s La Trahison des images (The treachery of images), 1928–29—the painting that contains the words “Ceci n’est pas une pipe”. In effect, he proposed these as presiding icons over his oeuvre.

In a text in that catalogue, Broodthaers wrote:

"Whether a urinal signed "R. Mutt" (1917) or an objet trouve, any object can be elevated to the status of art. The artist defines this object in such a way that its future can lie only in the museum. Since Duchamp, the artist is author of a definition. Two facts will be brought into focus here: that in the beginning Duchamp's initiative was aimed at destabilizing the power of juries and schools, and that today—having become a mere shadow of itself—it dominates an entire area of contemporary art, supported by collectors and dealers."

Elsewhere, Broodthaers wrote, "'This is not a work of art' is a formula obtained by the contraction of a concept by Duchamp and an antithetical concept by Magritte." Broodthaers affixed a label with that same disclaimer to every object in his installation Musée d’Art Moderne, Département des Aigles, Section des Figures (Der Adler vom Oligozän bis Heute) (Museum of modern art, Department of Eagles, figures section [The eagle from the Oligocene to the present.]) Here the artist-as-museum-director gathered over 300 objects containing images of eagles—some of them artworks, some ancient images, some commercial objects, packaging, etc. Broodthaers' fictive "museum" and its paradoxical system of labels extend Duchamp and Magritte's ironic questioning of how language and authority confer (or deny) the aura of uniqueness and value that accrues to objects judged to be "art."

• 100% combed and ring-spun cotton (Heather colors contain polyester)
• Fabric weight: 4.2 oz/yd² (142 g/m²)
• Pre-shrunk fabric
• Side-seamed construction
• Shoulder-to-shoulder taping
• Blank product sourced from Guatemala, Nicaragua, Mexico, Honduras, or the US

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