In this artwork, how is the The Box of 1914 of the Boxes elucidated?
The Box of 1914 brings together facsimiles of the first sketches and preparatory notes for The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even, reproduced on 13 silver glass plates; there are 3 copies, five copies according to others. The container for the box was a commercial cardboard box for photographic plates.In an interview with Pierre Cabanne, Duchamp explains:For the "Box" of 1913-1914, it's different. I didn't have the idea of a box as much as just notes. I thought I could collect, in an album like the Saint-Etienne catalogue, some calculations, some reflections, without relating them. Sometimes they're torn pieces of paper... I wanted that album to go with the "Glass" and to be consulted when seeing the "Glass" because, as I see it, it must not be "looked at" in the aesthetic sense of the word. One must consult the book, and see the two together. The conjunction of the two things entirely removes the retinal aspect that I don't like. It was very logical.
The 1914 box contains facsimile notes and three photographs of a piece of string mounted on canvas and a note that led to the work: 3 Standard Stoppages. It also contains a single drawing of a cyclist riding uphill titled Avoir l'appenti du soleil (To Have the Apprentice in the Sun).
One of the notes in the box makes an early reference to Duchamps last work: Étant donnés, "Etant donné que ....; si je suppose que je sois souffrant beacoup ...."Copies of the box are held by the Centre Georges Pompidou, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Musee Maillol in Paris, and the Art Institute of Chicago. Jacques Villon once owned a fifth copy, which is lost.
Art Institute of Chicago Jacques Villon Centre Georges Pompidou Musee Maillol silver glass plates Étant donnés Philadelphia Museum of Art