THE OBJECT
MERET OPPENHEIM, 1936
Alright, here's the story Oppenheim used to tell. She's twenty-two, sitting at a café with Picasso and the photographer Dora Maar. On her wrist is a bracelet she designed, a brass cuff covered in fur. Picasso looks at it and says, basically, you could cover anything in fur. Oppenheim looks down at the table. Even this cup and saucer. Then she calls to the waiter, "A little more fur." That could have been it. Just a good line over coffee. But not long after, the Surrealists ask her to make something for a show. She remembers the joke, buys a plain white cup, saucer, and spoon, and covers the whole thing in fur. Your eyes understand it immediately. Cup. Saucer. Spoon. Then your mouth gets involved. Because the fur goes right up to the rim. You can already feel the wet hair against your lips. Your body makes the decision for you. Nope. That's the whole thing. She takes three objects designed to make drinking tea easy and civilized, and makes them impossible to use. People went nuts for it. André Breton, the writer and self-appointed leader of the Surrealist movement, gave it the grander title Luncheon in Fur. MoMA showed it and bought it that same year. The first work by a woman the museum ever owned. Great for the cup. A little rough on Oppenheim. Because after this, everyone wanted more fur. More shock. Another perfect Surrealist object. She spent years trying not to be reduced to the woman who made the furry teacup. Imagine making one joke at twenty-two and having everyone ask you to tell it again for the next fifty years. Still, look at it. Soft. Cozy. Then you picture it inside your mouth.