Gustave Courbet, 1893 |
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I traveled throughout Europe when I was quite young, only fifteen or sixteen, with my cousin and good friend Grace Kennedy. Since Grace was then a quite famous silent screen star, she introduced me to the artistic circle and life in Europe. We meet an array of European avant-garde artists from Hugo Ball to Pablo Picasso to Hannah Hoch. In retrospect, I can trace my obsession with artists and collecting to those precious early years. Somewhat later while living in New York with my husband Sir Richard S. Harry, daughter Beatrice ( "Sissy") and son Theodore, I once again had the good fortune to become reacquainted with many of the expatriates. We would frequently visit Marcel Duchamp and his lovely companion Mary Reynolds. Indeed, I can still vividly remember Duchamp's and Reynold's apartment. Mary had pasted maps on the walls and earrings hung as adornment instead of paintings. The children-Beatrice and Theodore-just love going there! In those years, my husband and I entertained a great deal: dinner parties-costumes-charade-theater of the absurd. After one of these soirees, the term Pop Alreadymades *was somehow coined to describe my eclectic collection. Pop Alreadymades are these extraordinary seemingly innocuous mass produced items from photographs to key chains, from postcards to pins, from condoms to cigarette lighters. Indeed, in retrospect, they serve as modern day hieroglyphics which reveals and reflects society's duplicitous language, culture, history and ideology. Regrettably, much of my earlier collection of Pop Alreadymades was lost in the fire that tragically destroyed our family home in Paris or misplaced during our constant journeys from Chicago to Paris to New York. The loss was so great that even now, thirty years later, I cannot bear to think of it. Since illness has excluded me from living a normal life, my unique family has thankfully and enthusiastically continued to contribute to my modest collection. Helene felt it was important for those viewing the collection to know more about its historical contents and asked me to write this statement as an explanation to those who will be visiting the museum. The establishment of the museum is still in the preliminary stages and it regrettably will not be physically constructed in my life time. I hope you, the viewers, will enjoy The I Due Art 4 you Museum and realize that art is a reflection of life no matter what shape it takes. Madame S. Harry |
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*Each member of the Harry family and their friends had conflicting stories concerning both the Harry's art collection and the authorship of the term Pop Alreadymades. Therefore, I have used only Madame's account which excludes the contribution of the infamous Baroness Von Freytag-Loringhoven to the education of The Harry's and their collection of Pop Alreadymades. |