signed green-cardboard mailbox
1959 · Paris
by André Breton and Marcel Duchamp
A green-cardboard mailbox that Marcel Duchamp created as a catalog for the 1959 Exposition Internationale du Surréalisme (EROS) in Paris. The box contains letters, texts, telegrams, and postcards representing or made by the artists who participated in the show. One of 200 copies. Marcel DUCHAMP (1887-1968). Boîte alerte (Alert box). Lascivious Missives - 1959 / 1960. Set of documents contained in a green cardboard letterbox measuring 28.5 x 18 cm with opening, movable hat, title on the front followed by a label printed in red: "Lascivious Missives" and, on the left side, printed on one line "International Exhibition of Surrealism". Surrealist box composed by André Breton and Marcel Duchamp to serve as a receptacle for the catalog of the International Surrealism Exhibition (1959-1960) organized at the Cordier gallery and various other documents detailed below: 1 - The exhibition catalog, large narrow In-8 of 144 pp., heavily illustrated, paperback, illustrated cover, numbered 5/200. 2 - Nine lascivious Missives: - 1. Robert Benayoum, pink envelope "Not to be opened under any circumstances" containing Le Corridor, illustrated leaflet in four panels. - 2. Micheline Bounoure, yellow envelope "Be ardent in the forest" containing two original compositions in symmetrical colors on the same sheet obtained by folding. - 3. Alain Joubert, pale green envelope containing "La Perle fine", text printed on four leaves. - 4.Red envelope "Have you thought about donating a little blood" containing a printed leaflet: La Pointe. - 5. R. Benayoum, "Strictly personal" white envelope containing authorization to republish a redacted text. - 6. Octavio Paz, airgram "Huis clos" containing Edemira B. printed on two sheets and two photographs. - 7. Transparent envelope "Notice of suffering" containing an anonymous leaflet "Letters from a sadist". - 8 André Pieyre de Mandiargues, orange "External use" envelope containing a "La Marée" leaflet. - 9. A white window envelope containing a woman's black stocking marked "Haut" by Mimi Parent. 3 - A cable on pink paper by Marcel Duchamp "Yours at André Breton". 4 - A double-sided 45 rpm vinyl record with texts spoken by: side a. J. Mansour, "The religious intoxication of big cities"; side b. B. Péret, "La Brebis galante". 5 - Six color postcards by Bellmer, Dali, Gorky, Miró, Svanberg, Clovis Trouille. 6 - Four original lithographs numbered 5/200 signed by the artists: Marie Toyen, Max Walter Svanberg, Adrien Dax and Joan Miro and an etching numbered 5/200 and signed by Jacques Le Maréchal.
(Inventory #: N - 2024 - 12)