folkartwork

CLAUDE CAHUN Object (1936) // Wood and paint with tennis ball, hair, and found objects; 13.7 × 10.7 × 16 cm (5 3/8 × 6 3/8 × 4 in.)

Cahun’s assemblages were typically ephemeral and made to be photographed; “Object” is the only sculptural work by the artist known to still exist in its original form.

via The Art Institute of Chicago

“For Object, Cahun altered a number of seemingly unrelated components—a doll’s hand, a cloud-shaped piece of wood, and a tennis ball painted with a wide-open eye—to produce a startling psychological resonance. The eye, in particular, a key Surrealist symbol of inner perception, also suggests female anatomy. On the base of the work, Cahun added the French phrase, ‘The Marseillaise is a revolutionary song, the law punishes counterfeiters with forced labor.’ Much like the rest of the work, the inscription is a juxtaposition of disparate elements: the first, a well-known slogan from France’s antifascist coalition, the left-wing Popular Front, and the other, a phrase from Belgian currency. In combining these phrases, Cahun seems to point an accusatory finger at the supposed “revolutionary” leaders of France—a rare direct reference to politics in a Surrealist artwork. “

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