Artwork Details
- Title
- Indestructible Object
- Artist
- Date
- 1965
- Location
- Not on view
- Dimensions
- 8 1⁄2 x 4 1⁄2 x 4 1⁄2 in. (21.6 x 11.5 x 11.5 cm.)
- Credit Line
- Gift of Samuel M. Greenbaum and Helen Mark families in memory of Helen Mark Greenbaum
- Mediums Description
- wood, fiber, metal, and paper on cardboard
- Classifications
- Subjects
- Figure — fragment — eye
- Performing arts — music
- Object Number
- 1993.43
Artwork Description
In 1922, Man Ray created a piece titled Object to be Destroyed from a metronome and a photograph of an eye. In a 1956 Paris exhibition the piece was destroyed by angry viewers who considered the work meaningless. The artist immediately created a duplicate, which he named Indestructible Object, to show that the idea behind the work could never be erased. Further replicas have been known as Lost Object, Last Object (due to a printer’s error), and Motif Perpétuel. The piece was reproduced so many times that it developed a life of its own, demeaning the value of “original” art and craftsmanship in the true spirit of Dada. The one-eyed metronome even appeared on a political poster in Hamburg with the slogan “Choose the right beat,” an ironic use of the image that Man Ray would have approved.