Marcel Duchamp, Self Portrait in Profile (Schwarz 344), 1967

Marcel Duchamp

Self Portrait in Profile (from To and From Rrose Sélavy), 1967

Silkscreen with serigraphed inscription by Duchamp. Unframed.

13 3/4 × 10 4/5 in34.9 × 27.4 cm

Deluxe Edition: 8/60

Eager to share Marcel Duchamp with Japanese audiences, Shuzo Takiguchi - a Japanese-born poet, critic, and artist with ties to Surrealist circles, assembled an international portfolio of graphic works by various artists with strong ties to Duchamp, to accompany the deluxe version of his monograph, "To and From Rrose Sélavy". The present work is a silkscreen print of Duchamp's famous original "Self-portrait in Profile", a collage created a decade earlier for deluxe editions of Robert Lebel’s "Sur Marcel Duchamp." (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.) The present print features the serigraphed text "Marcel dechiravit pour Shuzo Takiguchi 1967." Marcel déchiravit—"Marcel tore this quickly" refers to the inscription of the original "Self Portrait in Profile". ("Marcel dechiravit" incorporates the invented word dechiravit, a contraction of the French verb déchirer (to tear) and the adverb vite (quick), which, again, alludes to the process Duchamp employed to create the original Self-Portrait in Profile.). In the present work, Duchamp playfully adds "pour Shuzu Takiguchi 1967" to his original inscription "Marcel dechiravit". Rrose Selavy, by the way, is, famously, Marcel Duchamp's female alter ego.

Catalogue Raisonne Reference: Arturo Schwarz The Complete Works of Marcel Duchamp, Abrams, P.532, 344c