Marcel Duchamp's project is as complex, ambiguous, and rich as anything undertaken by any artist of the twentieth century. One of the most elaborate networks of meaning started by Duchamp derives from his 'performance' of Rrose Selavy, the female personification first used as a signature, mocked up in a series of posed drag photographs by Man Ray, and then persisting as an alter ego for Duchamp in many subsequent projects. The spectacle of a male artist who adopts a female persona and employs 'her' in the titles of various works, as the 'author' of other pieces, and simply as a sort of working fiction in his life raises questions of many kinds. Certainly the eroticization of the communication between artist and spectator, the performative nature of gender, the nature of the patriarchal art system and art history, and the meaning of authorship of works of art are all implicated in Duchamp's masquerade. To discuss only one facet of Rrose Selavy, therefore, taps only a small portion of the riches it contains. This essay discusses Rrose Selavy as an aspect of Duchamp's critique, or commentary, or artist's reaction to the rise of the commodity as a central fact of twentieth-century life. This entails, therefore, a description of the relationship of Rrose to the readymades which were initiated in 1913 and became a major part of Duchamp's work within the next few years. The Rrose persona, which began in 1920, falls into the category of the 'assisted' and 'semi-readymades,' making her first appearance as the copyright holder named on Duchamp's Fresh Widow (1920).
Clearly, of course, the Rrose practice extended beyond the bounds of the commodity critique aspect of the readymades. But its origin in that aspect of Duchamp's work is foundational and consideration of the commodification of Rrose Selavy provides threads that lead to performativity of gender, erotic interchange with the spectator, authorship, and many other concerns. Th...