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Object (Le Déjeuner en fourrure)Object (Le Déjeuner en fourrure) Digital Image © 2013 The Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA/Art Resource, NY © 2013 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ProLitteris,Zurich

Object (Le Déjeuner en fourrure)

Meret Oppenheim. 1936 C.E. Fur-covered cup, saucer, and spoon.

Curator Note

"The quintessential Surrealist object. Oppenheim covered a teacup with gazelle fur. The juxtaposition of a domesticated object (tea) with wild, tactile fur creates a sensory shock—it is at once attractive (soft) and repulsive (hair in mouth). It triggers unconscious associations with sexuality and the absurd."

Form

  • Readymade object (cup, spoon) modified.
  • Covered in Chinese gazelle fur.
  • Texture contrast: hard object made soft.
  • Small scale.
  • Sensory confusion.

Function

  • To shock the viewer ("épater le bourgeois").
  • To access the subconscious/dream state.
  • To create a "fetish" object.
  • To challenge rationality.
  • To explore the eroticism of touch.

Content

  • Teacup: feminine, domestic, civilized.
  • Fur: wild, animalistic, sexual.
  • The idea of drinking from it induces a gag reflex.
  • Pun in the title: "Lunch in Fur" refers to Manet's "Lunch on the Grass" (nude picnicking).
  • Absurdity.

Context

  • Born from a café conversation with Picasso and Dora Maar ("One could cover anything with fur").
  • Oppenheim was young and female in the male Surrealist circle.
  • Breton renamed it "Le Déjeuner en fourrure".
  • Freudian interpretation (sexual anxiety).
  • Surrealism aimed to unite dream and reality.