I love everything about the Centre Pompidou’s let it all hang out presentation of photo negatives in their collection, except the lack of metadata, and the inability to right-click.
Anyway, Marcel Duchamp’s birthday was in July, and he spent the summers in Francoist Spain, so this photo Man Ray made of a half-eaten birthday cake on a very aged Duchamp’s lap was likely taken in Cadaqués in the mid-to-late 1960s.
There are ten candles, and what looks to be the remnant of the number ten written in icing. Was this maybe his tenth summer back, so his last birthday, in 1968? Will this be one of the many mysteries Ann Temkin will solve for us later this year?
Stay tuned!
Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp tenant un gâteau d’anniversaire sur ses genoux, vers 1960 [centrepompidou.fr]