Replicas and Copies: The Emergence of Portable Museums

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Sydney Slacas, Graduate Student Intern at the CMA
November 12, 2021
From or by Marcel Duchamp or Rrose Sélavy , 1935–40, 1963–66 (Series F). Marcel Duchamp (French, 1887–1968). 2007.157Copyright

Graduate students interning at the CMA through the Joint Program in Art History at the Cleveland Museum of Art and Case Western Reserve University conducted historical research on the museum and its art for the full year of their internship. In these essays, the students share the findings and insights from their research. Sydney’s essay is the second in the series.

At the Cleveland Museum of Art, a small, unassuming leather box sits tucked away in storage. Marcel Duchamp (French, 1887–1968) created this later edition of his so-called Boîte-en-valise, or box in a suitcase, which contains eighty miniature copies of his own artwork. The objects in the box range from prints, paintings, and photographs to small sculptures made of wood, glass, and porcelain. They are part of a larger series of three hundred Boîtes-en-valises that he described as “portable museums” in which he carried his life’s work.[1]

Duchamp was one of the most prolific artists of the Dada movement, which started in Europe during World War I (1914–1918). The movement quickly became known as “anti-art” because the artists responded to societal turmoil by purposefully creating nonsensical objects and poking fun at the art world’s traditional idea of what could and should be considered art. Duchamp debuted his “ready-mades” in early twentieth-century New York, declaring that mundane objects like snow shovels and urinals transformed into works of art when a viewer simply considered them to be artistic objects.[2]

From or by Marcel Duchamp or Rrose Sélavy (detail), 1935–40, 1963–66 (Series F). Marcel Duchamp (French, 1887–1968). Red leather box containing 80 objects (collotype, letterpress, pochoir, and lithographic prints; gouache, green lacquer, varnish, celluloid, wood; objects of glass, oilcloth, and ceramic; overall: 41.5 x 38.5 x 9.9 cm. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund, 2007.157. © Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

This irreverent idea extended to the objects in his portable museums, calling into question the difference between original works of art and replicas. Duchamp began creating the first editions of what would become the portable museums during the1930s in France. This question of authenticity drove him to painstakingly begin recreating his work in miniature, traveling around the world to observe his original artwork to ensure absolute color matches and quality as well as to gather materials for his recreations.[3] However, when the Nazi’s occupied France in 1940, his work ground to a halt due to travel restrictions.[4]

His solution was to partner with a local Parisian cheese monger, working as a courier across the Nazi-created border into the south of France where he would acquire his materials. Packing his supplies under loads of cheese gave him the idea of the traveling museum. Small facsimiles, or copies, of his life’s work could fit into a briefcase much like a traveling salesman, allowing him to flee war-torn Europe with his own curated oeuvre in hand. When Duchamp managed to escape to the United States in 1942, he began assembling the miniature museums. These works beg the question: does art have to be an authentic, completely original work to be considered valuable? Additionally, what can a viewer gain from a portable replica?

From or by Marcel Duchamp or Rrose Sélavy (detail), 1935–40, 1963–66 (Series F). Marcel Duchamp (French, 1887–1968). Red leather box containing 80 objects (collotype, letterpress, pochoir, and lithographic prints; gouache, green lacquer, varnish, celluloid, wood; objects of glass, oilcloth, and ceramic; overall: 41.5 x 38.5 x 9.9 cm. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund, 2007.157. © Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Copies and replicas of art have not always been considered inferior or lesser works. In fact, throughout history, copies have been a valuable tool, a form of homage, and a means of practice for artists as well as sought after by collectors. Specifically, copies of original works of art served a principal role in nineteenth- century museums. They were instrumental in the art education process because for centuries students were taught to paint, sculpt, and craft by replicating the works of old masters. Institutions such as the Palais de l’Industrie in Paris filled their galleries with facsimiles of magnificent tapestries, porcelain vases, and Italian frescoes that otherwise would not have been accessible to them, as the original works resided in the halls of the Vatican.[5] The Musée des Copies opened to the public in 1873 and quickly filled with the emulations of masterworks that were being created by artists trained at the Académie in Paris. The most talented students won the Prix de Rome and traveled to Italy for five years to study art and architecture. In their fourth year, they were required to produce a copy of a masterpiece and return it to France so other students who could not travel to Italy could learn from old masterworks.

From or by Marcel Duchamp or Rrose Sélavy (detail), 1935–40, 1963–66 (Series F). Marcel Duchamp (French, 1887–1968). Red leather box containing 80 objects (collotype, letterpress, pochoir, and lithographic prints; gouache, green lacquer, varnish, celluloid, wood; objects of glass, oilcloth, and ceramic; overall: 41.5 x 38.5 x 9.9 cm. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund, 2007.157. © Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Aside from access, there is an additional benefit to the concept of Duchamp’s portable museums. These institutions traditionally arrange galleries of art by organizing them geographically and chronologically. While this is helpful when one is studying a certain time period or region, it also inaccurately implies that cultures and art movements existed in isolation and developed independently . Many art historians today are pushing for a global perspective of art history, one that closely examines how communities interacted with and utilized each other’s work to create their own. However, through both miniature copies of museum objects, like Duchamp’s boite-en-valises, and art that is not fixed to walls or arranged in a certain way, viewers can design their own narrative and draw new comparisons by deconstructing the prescribed timeline that museum curators often give the impression of. With smaller copies, viewers can hold, investigate, compare, and arrange works of art however they would like. By putting work in the hands of the audiences forming their own narratives, institutions can begin to deconstruct principles of museums that have colonial roots, such as geographic classifications and timelines.

From or by Marcel Duchamp or Rrose Sélavy (detail), 1935–40, 1963–66 (Series F). Marcel Duchamp (French, 1887–1968). Red leather box containing 80 objects (collotype, letterpress, pochoir, and lithographic prints; gouache, green lacquer, varnish, celluloid, wood; objects of glass, oilcloth, and ceramic; overall: 41.5 x 38.5 x 9.9 cm. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund, 2007.157. © Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Duchamp’s Boîtes-en-valises seek to democratize art access for all through small, portable facsimiles. How can museums use their missions to align with the idea of copies and how can we utilize new technology to help museums resolve some of its deepest systemic problems?

 

Sydney Slacas is a second-year MA student in the art history and museum studies program as well as a third-year JD student at the CWRU School of Law. She earned a BA in painting and drawing with a minor in art history from the South Carolina School of the Arts. In summer 2020, she was the legal intern for the International Foundation for Art Research. Her research interests include art and museum law as well as modern and contemporary art history. She is active in both the law school and the art history communities, serving as a student representative in both schools as well as an executive board member for the Sports and Entertainment Law Society.

Citations:

[1] Michael Taylor, “Marcel Duchamp: The Box in a Valise” (lecture, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, May 2, 2012), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOeXeAy-aDs.

[2] See Hans Richter, Dada: Art and Anti-Art (New York: Thames and Hudson), 2016.

[3] “Marcel Duchamp.”

[4] Ibid.

[5] Emma Jacobs, “Why 19th-Century Paris Had a Museum Full of Copies,” Atlas Obscura, March 6, 2019, https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/paris-museum-of-copies.