
Le Manuscrit trouvé dans une bouteille (The Manuscript Found in a Bottle)
A delicate sheet of tissue paper serves as the unlikely vessel for this conceptually rich work by Marcel Broodthaers, evoking the romantic notion of a message adrift and waiting to be discovered. The work's title, borrowed from Edgar Allan Poe's tale of mystery and fate, underscores Broodthaers' fascination with the interplay between language, literature, and the art object. Numbered 32/120 and signed with the artist's initials in blue ink, this limited edition piece published by Edition René Block bridges the ephemeral and the archival.
- Medium
- Signed with initials and numbered 32/120 in blue ink on the sheet of tissue paper, published by Edition René Block, Berlin.
- Location
- Phillips, Salt Lake City, UT
- Spotted At
- Auction House · PhillipsView on map
🔨 Auction Lot
Evening & Day Editions
January 19, 2017
More by Marcel Broodthaers
Artists in conversation

Dieter Roth
German-Swiss · b. 1930

Roth similarly merged literary references with delicate, unconventional materials and limited edition printed works, often treating language and text as primary artistic subjects with an intellectual yet playful conceptual humor closely aligned to the Fluxus sensibility of this piece.

Lawrence Weiner
American · b. 1942

Weiner's practice centers on text as art object and the poetic potential of language rendered in minimal material form, mirroring Broodthaers' use of blue ink on tissue paper as a vehicle for conceptual and literary meaning rather than traditional pictorial representation.

Joseph Kosuth
American · b. 1945

Kosuth's text based conceptual works share this piece's core preoccupation with language, meaning, and the relationship between the art object and literary or intellectual frameworks, presenting words and documents as the artwork itself within a rigorously avant garde tradition.
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