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
New York, February 11, 1995
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