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Marcel Broodthaers — Citron – Citroen (Réclame pour la Mer du Nord) (Lemon – Lemon (Ad for the North Sea)) (V. 19)
Marcel Broodthaers

Citron – Citroen (Réclame pour la Mer du Nord) (Lemon – Lemon (Ad for the North Sea)) (V. 19)

In this work, Broodthaers employs wordplay and visual pun to conflate the French word "citron" (lemon) with "Citroën" (the automobile brand), creating a playful advertisement that subverts commercial imagery conventions. The offset lithograph and screenprint combines the artist's characteristic ironic approach to language and branding, typical of his conceptual practice that interrogated the nature of representation and meaning. The work exemplifies Broodthaers's strategy of appropriating and recontextualizing everyday commercial materials to critique consumer culture and reveal the arbitrary relationship between signifier and signified.

Medium
Offset lithograph and screenprint in colours, on heavy wove paper, the full sheet.

🔨 Auction Lot

Evening & Day Editions

January 23, 2025

Lot 21

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About this work

Marcel Broodthaers, Citron – Citroen (Réclame pour la Mer du Nord) (Lemon – Lemon (Ad for the North Sea)) (V. 19)

In this work, Broodthaers employs wordplay and visual pun to conflate the French word "citron" (lemon) with "Citroën" (the automobile brand), creating a playful advertisement that subverts commercial imagery conventions. The offset lithograph and screenprint combines the artist's characteristic ironic approach to language and branding, typical of his conceptual practice that interrogated the nature of representation and meaning. The work exemplifies Broodthaers's strategy of appropriating and recontextualizing everyday commercial materials to critique consumer culture and reveal the arbitrary relationship between signifier and signified.

Medium
Offset lithograph and screenprint in colours, on heavy wove paper, the full sheet.
Seen at
Phillips, New York, London, Hong Kong

Related themes

Print, 20th Century, Belgian Artist, Mixed Media, Conceptual Art, Commercial Imagery, Poetic irony, Wordplay and advertising, Surrealist aesthetics, Language Based Art

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