Object to Be Destroyed

Considered a "readymade" piece, in the style established by Marcel Duchamp, it employs an ordinary manufactured object, with little modification, as a work of art.

Examples of the work are held in various public collections including the Tate Modern in London, MOMA in New York City, and the Reina Sofía in Madrid.

The metronome, originally manufactured by the Qualite Excelsior company, was a mass-produced product that might be commonly found in many homes.

It was probably secondhand when Man Ray reconfigured it as an art object, as it was marred, worn, missing minor parts and stood on mismatched feet, though its mechanism was in fair working order.

[3] In 1932, the year Man Ray's lover Lee Miller left him to return to New York, a second version of the piece, called Object of Destruction, was published in the avant-garde journal This Quarter, edited by André Breton.

While on display in the Exhibition Dada in Paris in 1957, a group of protesting students, led by the French poet Jean-Pierre Rosnay [fr] and calling themselves the 'Jarivistes', took Man Ray at his word and actually destroyed the object.

Then, grabbing Object to Destroy, they were gone—but with Dadaist Man Ray puffing after them, crying: "They're stealing my painting!"

But last week, as visitors flocked to the show, Tristan Tzara, the grand old man of Dada, was delighted.