Suzanne Duchamp
French, 1889–1963
Broken and Restored Multiplication
INV-1340
Suzanne Duchamp
French, 1889–19631918–19
Broken and Restored Multiplication
Suzanne Duchamp French, 1889–1963 →CalligramConcrete poemDadapaintingModern Art Highlights
Date
1918–19
Medium
Oil and silver paper on canvas
Dimensions
61 × 50 cm (24 × 19 11/16 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Gift of Mary P. Hines in memory of her mother, Frances W. Pick; through prior acquisitions of Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson, H. J. Willing, and Charles H. and Mary F. S. Worcester
Like many Dada works, those by Suzanne Duchamp weave painting, collage, and language together in complex ways. Broken and Restored Multiplication is filled with visual and verbal metaphors of disorder and breakage: at the center, a schematic Eiffel Tower is turned upside down; just below it, a modern cityscape is reflected in its mirror image. The phrases that run up and down along the surface of the picture further the idea of order upended: "The mirror would shatter, the scaffolding would totter, the balloons would fly away, the stars would dim, etc." Such images and words seemed fitting for the artists who embraced Dada, a cultural movement that emerged in response to World War I.
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