Du singe au perroquet: un trait du bestiaire de Marcel Broodthaers [From the monkey to the parrot: a feature of Marcel Broodthaers s bestiary]

• Published in: Cahiers du Musée National d'Art Moderne (France) no. 83; pp. 90 - 105
• Main Author: Da Silva, Jean
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: French
• Published: 01.03.2003
• ISSN: 0181-1525

Discusses the portrayal of animals in the work of the Belgian artist Marcel Broodthaers (1924-76), focusing on parrots. The author highlights his exhibition Ne Dites Pas Que Je Ne l Ai Pas Dit /Zeg Niet Dat Ik Het Niet Gezegd Heb: le Perroquet/de Papegaai, shown at the Wide White Space Gallery in Antwerp, Belgium (Sept. 1974), emphasizes his Pense-Bête, and comments on the parrot in his arrangement Dites Partout Que Je l Ai Dit in the `La chambre du perroquet cabinet of his exhibition Eloge du Sujet< /i> shown at the Kunstmuseum Basel in Basle (Oct. 1974), with reference to the poem-collage La Poule/Le Système D (1967-74) and the parrots in the exhibition catalogue. He notes the images of parrots, including from the film Berlin: oder ein Traum mit Sahne (1974; illus.), in the exhibition catalogue for Catalogue/Catalogus shown at the Palais des Beaux Arts de Bruxelles in Brussels (27 Sept.-3 Nov. 1974), highlights the bird in Broodthaers's retrospective Invitation pour une Exposition Bourgeois: das Wort Film shown at the Nationalgalerie in Berlin (26 Feb.-1 April 1975), and outlines the crow in the work Le Corbeau et le Renard (d après La Fontaine) (1967-68), the eagle in Musée d Art Moderne, Département des Aigles (1968), and the parrot in Un Jardin d Hiver shown in a group exhibition at the Palais des Beaux Arts de Bruxelles (9 Jan-3 Feb. 1974). He emphasizes other artists' work featuring parrots including Manet s Jeune Dame en 1866 (la Femme au Perroquet), and indicates the parrots in Jannis Kounellis's exhibition at L Attico in Rome (11 Nov-Dec. 1967) and Dennis Oppenheim's Color Application for Chandra (1971; illus.). He refers to Joseph Beuys's performance I Like America and America Likes Me at the René Block gallery in New York (1974), Yves Klein's `monochromes and Piero Manzoni's `achromes , examines the monkey in ABC-ABC Image (1974; illus.), and elaborates on the attitudes behind Broodthaers's work. He concludes by considering the reference to ventriloquism in Interview with a Cat in his Musée d Art Moderne, Département des Aigles (1970).