Rrose Slavy

ful queen of France. Aphorism 13 paid homage to Marcel Duchamp: Rrose Slavy connat bien le marchand
du sel in English: Rrose Slavy knows the merchant
of salt well"; in French the nal words sound like Marchamp Du-cel. Note that the 'salt seller' aphorism marchand-du-sel is a phonetic rearrangement of the syllables in the artists actual name: mar-cel-du-champ.
(Duchamps compiled notes are titled 'Salt Seller'.) In
1939 a collection of these aphorisms was published under the name of Rrose Slavy, entitled Poils et coups de
pieds en tous genres.
The inspiration of the name Rrose Slavy has been viewed
to be Belle da Costa Greene, J.P. Morgan's librarian of
The Morgan Library & Museum (formerly The Pierpont
Morgan Library) who, following his death, became the
Librarys director, working there for a total of forty-three
years. Empowered by J.P. Morgan, and then by his son
Jack, Greene built the collection buying and selling rare
manuscripts, books and art.[1]
The late Ilmar Laaban an Estonian poet, lecturer, polyglot and intellectual who died in exile in Sweden, often
called the father of Estonian surrealism wrote a collection of poetry called Rroosi Selaviste in Estonian
that is based on wordplay and puns. Published in 1957,
it is without a doubt one of his major accomplishments,
a playful homage to his native tongue that not only shows
the suppleness of the Estonian language, but also Laabans virtuosity as a wordsmith.

Rrose Slavy (Marcel Duchamp). 1921. Photograph by Man

Ray. Art direction by Marcel Duchamp.

Rrose Slavy, or Rose Slavy, was one of the

pseudonyms of artist Marcel Duchamp. The name, a pun,
sounds like the French phrase "Eros, c'est la vie, which
translates to English as Eros, thats life. It has also been
Niandra LaDes, an alter ego of John Frusciante, was
read as arroser la vie (to make a toast to life).
based on Rrose Slavy. This character is also featured on
Slavy emerged in 1921 in a series of photographs by
the cover of Frusciantes 1994 album Niandra LaDes and
Man Ray of Duchamp dressed as a woman. Through
Usually Just a T-Shirt, which is a screenshot from a lm
the 1920s, Man Ray and Duchamp collaborated on more
by Frusciantes then-girlfriend, Toni Oswald. This lm
photos of Slavy. Duchamp later used the name as the byremains unreleased, though a tradition among the avantline on written material and signed several creations with
garde is to show the lm in the proximity of items bearing
it.
a similar resemblance to a Duchampian fountain.[2]
Duchamp used the name in the title of at least one
sculpture, Why Not Sneeze, Rose Slavy? (1921). The
sculpture, a type of readymade called an assemblage, con- 1 Notes
sists of an oral thermometer, a couple dozen small cubes
of marble resembling sugar cubes and a cuttlesh bone in[1] Duchamp Bottles Belle Greene: Just Desserts For His
side a birdcage. Slavy also appears on the label of Belle
Canning by Bonnie Jean Garner.
Haleine, Eau de Voilette (1921), a readymade that is a perfume bottle in the original box. Duchamp also signed his [2] Niandra LaDes and Usually Just a T-Shirt
lm Anemic Cinema (1926) with the Slavy name.
From 1922 the name Rrose Slavy also started appearing
in a series of aphorisms, puns, and spoonerisms by the
French surrealist poet Robert Desnos. Desnos tried to
portray Rrose Slavy as a long-lost aristocrat and right-

2 References
Rrose Slavy, Man Ray (1921) by Jonathan Jones in
1

3
The Guardian.
Mention of Slavy at DaDa Online.
Duchamp Bottles Belle Greene: Just Desserts For
His Canning by Bonnie Jean Garner (with text boxes
by Stephen Jay Gould)

External links
Marcel Duchamp as Rrose Slavy

EXTERNAL LINKS

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

4.1

Text

Rrose Slavy Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rrose_S%C3%A9lavy?oldid=666301078 Contributors: Yann, Tregoweth, Kingturtle, RodC, Mu, David Sneek, Guthrie, Sparkit, Bensin, DeadEyeArrow, Open2universe, Mike Selinker, SmackBot, Bluebot, Gobonobo,
JHunterJ, CmdrObot, Cydebot, Tkynerd, TonyTheTiger, Rrose Selavy, Tjmayerinsf, Bus stop, CommonsDelinker, JoDonHo, VolkovBot,
Sean Maleter, Verbist, Every3rdthought, Arjayay, Sophievogt, Mitch Ames, Kbdankbot, Addbot, Setwisohi, Yobot, Racconish, Aciuuzdemesi, Jfmantis, EmausBot, Dirk dada~enwiki, Maimeleipzig, Pengkeu and Anonymous: 22

4.2

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4.3

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