Antecedents

Pair of vintage black leather boots with high lace-up design, displayed open with visible insides and detached laces in front.

Meret Oppenheim
The Couple (with Egg), 1967
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Ancient papyrus manuscript fragments with Greek text

 ‘We live the opposite, dar(l)ing’ is adapted from Sappho fragment 24C, ‘We live the opposite, daring’
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“Freedom is not something you are given, but something you have to take.”

–Meret Oppenheim

Vintage black and white portrait of a woman sitting on a chair, wearing dark clothing, with short hair and an intense expression, holding a cigarette.
black wavy line on white background

Berenice Abbott Portrait of Princess Eugene Murat (1928) SOURCE

A framed sepia-toned photograph of a poodle wearing a coat, sitting on a platform.

Man Ray (Emmanuel Radnitzky)
Basket, le Chien de Gertrude Stein (1926) SOURCE

Man Ray made “fantastic portraits of men,” but “his women were mostly just pretty objects.”

–Berenice Abbott

A black and white photo of a person with short hair holding a cat. The background has an abstract pattern.

Claude Cahun Self Portrait (1928)
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Members of Natalie Barney’s Paris Salon (1929)
Some of these people were real members , others were ‘aspirational’ members
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black wavy line on white background
Ada 'Bricktop' Smith in Paris

Ada ‘Bricktop’ Smith
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Cyanotype of Cystoseira granulata

Anna Atkins Cystoseira Granulata.
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See our Cyanotype

Black wavy mustache graphic on white background
Black and white portrait of a woman with her head turned to the side and hand on her shoulder.

Lee Miller Solarized Portrait (1930).
(Thought to be Meret Oppenheim)
SOURCE

“[Y]ou should discover, handle, tame, make irrational objects yourself.”

Claude Cahun, from essay: “Beware of Domestic Objects.” (1936)

Handwritten poetic verse on lined paper
Cover of the book "Tender Buttons" by Gertrude Stein, published by Claire Marie in 1914, New York. Features sections: Objects, Food, Rooms.
black wavy line on white background

Gertrude Stein “Tender Buttons” (1914).

Stein’s short prose poems on discrete objects (eye glasses, a seltzer bottle, an umbrella) that comprised ordinary daily living. SOURCE

Cover of 'The Crisis' magazine, July 1919 issue, featuring an artistic illustration of a face.

The Crisis Magazine founded by W.E.B Du Bois

The Crisis is the official magazine of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). It was founded in 1910 by W. E. B. Du Bois (editor) and has been in continuous print since 1910. .  Langston Hughes published more than 25 poems in The Crisis between 1921 and 1926.
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Black curved mustache illustration

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