MARIËN, Marcel L'art d'accommoder les invendus.... Lot 260

MARIËN, Marcel L'art d'accommoder les invendus. 1967 Assemblage of 5 framed collages on wallpaper, 153.3 x 78 cm, collages signed and dated between "1966" and "1967". Under glass and gilded brown painted wooden frame (small defect on frame). An "unsold" item is one that has not found a buyer during the period set aside for the sale. A change in fashion often explains this situation and the resulting stock of unsold goods. Mariën's title is deliberately ironic. Indeed, Mariën's works (collages and assembled objects) are, on principle, outside fashion and even against it. The general title of this collage refers to that of a recipe book precisely entitled "L'art d'accommoder les restes" (Paris, Achille Faure, 1866). This home economics book explained how to reclaim leftover meat, fish, vegetables, etc. for further culinary preparation. The expression "L'art d'accommoder les restes" ("The art of preparing leftovers") has since become part of everyday language, and even appeared as a thematic section in some women's magazines between the wars. The four collages "Chaleur de ta main", "L'abîme de Pascal", "Essai sur le caractère érogène des zones non-érogènes", had been presented separately at his 1st solo exhibition, held at Galerie Defacqz from April 18 to May 5, 1967. In "Rétrospective des rétrospectives" (2 ed.: 1989 and 1990 by Isy Brachot), Marïen explains: "L'art d'accommoder les invendus" is presented as a new initiative in the art trade: the sale of paintings by whole wall sections. Perhaps one day we'll be able to buy a turnkey museum: the Louvre or the Hermitage. It's an idea to be explored or left to one's own devices, as the case may be. These five collages, each duly framed in wood and fixed in a common frame, are to be considered as an "object" (in the surrealist sense of the word). The bottom of the frame is lined with wallpaper, decorated with floral motifs, normally used to decorate bedroom walls. In so doing, Mariën ironically reduces his collages to the function of ornamental accessories designed to embellish the interior of a home. Last but not least, Marcel Mariën entitled "Le Mur illustré" (The Illustrated Wall), his collective collection containing the reprinting of 14 exhibition catalog prefaces (Les lèvres nues, 1990). The set "L'art d'accommoder les invendus" comprises the following collages: 1) "L'abîme de PASCAL, le LEUR aussi". The title of this collage refers to a sonnet by Baudelaire: "Pascal avait son gouffre, avec lui se mouvant // - Hélas! tout est abîme, - action, désir, rêve [...]" ("Le gouffre" in "Les Fleurs du Mal"). At the bottom of this collage, next to the signature, we note: "auteur + date = oeuvre d'art". Far from the classic definitions of a work of art as the expression of an aesthetic, moral or political ideal, Mariën reduces this notion - ironically, of course - to elementary criteria of validity: the name of the artist and the date of the work's creation. 2) [Untitled]. Is this the "Essay on the erogenous character of non-erogenous zones"? In an oval frame, a kind of vulvar slit is depicted, formed from the fold of an armpit or groin. 3) "Difficult caresses". The collage "Les caresses difficiles" is a typical example of the application of a technique invented by Marïen, which he calls "étrécissement". This Old French word designates the action of "étrécir", i.e. "to make narrower", to reduce the width of something. A road or canal was thus narrowed. Marcel Marïen explains what he means by this term in the preface to his catalog "Rétrospectives et Nouveautés" (Brussels, 1967) (reprinted in the collective collection "Le Mur illustré", Les lèvres Nues, 1990, p. 9): "I have called 'étrécissements' the results of a process I first experimented with in the summer of 1964. Using a pair of scissors, I cut out a magazine page [...]". Ref. Mariën Foundation, MM-O-464. Expo À la recherche de l'heure exacte 1013 ans avant l'an 3000, Dunkerque, École régionale des Beaux-Arts Georges-Pompidou, 1987, no. 9. - Marcel Mariën. Rétrospective des rétrospectives, Brussels, Galerie Isy Brachot, January 18 - February 25, 1989, no. 20.