Marcel Broodthaers (1924-1976)

Triomphe de Moule I (Moules Casserole)

Details
Marcel Broodthaers (1924-1976)
Triomphe de Moule I (Moules Casserole)
painted casserole, mussel shells with paint
19 3/4 x 15 3/4 x 15 3/4in. (50 x 40 x 40cm.)
Executed in 1965.
Provenance
Dr. Hubert Peeters, Brussels (acquired directly from the artist).
Christie's, London, Contemporary Art Auction, 2 July 1992, lot 74.
Exhibited
Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Objets de Broodthaers/Voorwerpen van Broodthaers, April 1965. Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Le Court Circuit, April 1967, no. 5. Knokke-le Zoute, Casino, Pop Art - Nienwe Figuratiel Nouveaus Réalisme, June-September 1970. Stockholm, Moderna Museet, Marcel Broodthaers, May-June 1982, no. 7 (illustrated in the catalogue p. 51).
Minneapolis, Walker Art Center, Marcel Broodthaers, April-June 1989. Pittsburgh, Carnegie Museum of Art, Marcel Broodthaers, January-March 1990. Paris, Galeries National Jeu de Paume; Madrid, Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Marcel Broodthaers, December 1991-June 1992 (illustrated in colour in the catalogue p. 78).

Lot Essay

"La Moule
Cette roublarde a évité la moule de la société.
Elle s'est coulée dans le sien propre.
D'autres, ressemblantes, partagent avec elle l'anti-mer.
Elle est parfaite." (Ex. Cat. Minneapolis, Walker Art Center, Marcel Broodthaers, 1989, p. 22.)

Executed in 1965 Triomphe de Moule, is a definitive example of Broodthaers's ideology that incorporates both his surrealist humour and his profound questioning of what exactly makes a work of art. Acquired directly from the artist by the previous owner, Dr. Hubert Peeters, who was a friend and ardent collector of Broodthaers's work, it comprises two of the motifs central to Broodthaers's creativity - the mussel shell and the cooking pot.

In this sculpture, the artist arranges countless mussel shells inside a metal cooking pot, fixing and containing discarded food products as though they were somehow sacred. Through his appropriation of these seemingly familiar, yet strangely perverse objects, Broodthaers questions the social context of a work of art and the role of the museum or gallery in constructing our cultural history. As such, he shares the preoccupations of Duchamp and the American Pop artists.

Like the best Surrealist objects, the work allows for multiple interpretations. On one level, the sculpture can be seen as ironic. In the tradition of Magritte, it wittily embodies the quintessential essence of Belgian life, something that Broodthaers was again to refer to in his sculptures of stacked pomme frites.

On another more philosophical level, the work can be understood as a play upon the ambiguity of language - again an influence of Magritte. As Michael Compton identifies, "The mussel turns on the play in French between la moule (mussel) and le moule (mould), and on the fact that a mussel secretes the shell which shapes it. This mussel plainly creates itself and so is perfect, that is authentic... Broodthaers also makes an equation between perfection and invisibility. He wrote later that "an object is invisible when its form is perfect. Examples: the egg, the mussel, chips." In this case, perfection and invisibility seem to arise when there is an exact and familiar relation of object to function or desire." (Ex. Cat. Minneapolis, Walker Art Center, Marcel Broodthaers, 1989, p. 24)

The precarious, almost haphazard organisation of the mussels in the casserole dish echoes their arrangement in nature. In this way, Broodthaers draws attention to the relationship between the natural world and the "inauthentic" environment in which the art work is displayed. After all, it is only the museum and our notion of an artist as revered creator that differentiates a pile of moules from a masterpiece.

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