Jean Crotti (1878-1958), Les forces mécaniques de l'amour en mouvement

Jean Crotti (1878-1958)
Les forces mécaniques de l'amour en mouvement
signed, titled and dated 'J. Crotti LES FORCES MECANIQUES DE L'AMOUR EN MOUVEMENT 1916.' (lower right)
oil on glass, wood, newsprint, tin, paper, wire and metal tubing assemblage
23 ¾ x 29 ¼ in. (60.2 x 74.3 cm.)
Executed in New York, 1916

Provenance
Estate of the artist.
Galerie Tarica, Paris (acquired from the above, circa 1970).
Acquired from the above by the family of the present owners, circa 1970.

Pre-Lot Text
Beyond Boundaries: Avant-Garde Masterworks from a European Collection

Literature
N. Greeley-Smith, "Cubist Depicts Love in Brass and Glass; 'More Art in Rubbers than in Pretty Girl!'" in The Evening World, 4 April 1916, p. 3 (illustrated).
"'Moderns' in a Club Show" in American Art News, vol. XVI, no. 12, 29 December 1917, p. 3.
F. Vanderpyl, "Aujourd'hui vernissage du Salon de la Société des Artistes indépendants" in Le Petit Parisien, no. 15.675, 28 January 1920, p. 2.
F. Fénéon, G. Janneau and P. Forthuny, eds., "Au Salon des Indépendants" in Le bulletin de la vie artistique, vol. 1, no. 5, 1 February 1920, p. 127 (incorrectly attributed to Picabia and titled Les forces mécaniques de l'Amour).
F.L., "L'angle nouveau" in L'Homme libre: journal quotidien du matin, no. 1724, 11 April 1921, p. 3.
S. Ratel, "Suzanne Duchamp et Jean Crotti apôtres de la 'peinture pure'" in Comoedia, no. 5009, 16 September 1926, p. 1.
W. George, Jean Crotti et le démon de la connaissance, Paris, 1930 (illustrated).
W. George, Jean Crotti et la primauté du spirituel, Geneva, 1959, p. 54, no. 21 (illustrated; with inverted dimensions).
W.A. Camfield, Francis Picabia: His Art, Life and Times, Princeton, 1979, pp. 108-109, 136 and 287 (illustrated, fig. 149).
F.M. Naumann, New York Dada: 1915-1923, New York, 1994, pp. 101-102 (illustrated in color, p. 101; illustrated again in a reproduction of The Evening World article).
R. Short, Dada and Surrealism, London, 1994, p. 9 (illustrated; titled Mechanical Twilight, dated 1920 and with incorrect medium and dimensions).
F.M. Naumann and B. Venn, Making Mischief: Dada Invades New York, exh. cat., Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1996, pp. 230-235, 282 and 299 (illustrated, pp. 230 and 283).
N. Sawelson-Gorse, ed., Women in Dada: Essays on Sex, Gender, and Identity, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1998, pp. 85-86 and 91.
F.M. Naumann, Conversion to Modernism: The Early Work of Man Ray, New Brunswick, 2003, pp. 154-155 (illustrated, p. 155, fig. 158).
L. Dickerman, ed., DADA, exh. cat, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2005, pp. 283 and 423.
A. Pierre, "Dans la 'confrontation des valeurs modernes': Dada à Paris (1919-1924)" in Les Cahiers du Musée national d'art moderne, vol. 95, spring 2006, p. 19.
J.C. Bertoli, Jean Crotti: L'oeuvre peint, 1900-1958, catalogue raisonné, Milan, 2007, pp. 15, 33-35, 39 and 101, no. 16-08 (illustrated in color, pp. 33 and 101; illustrated again in a reproduction of The Evening World article, p. 308).
R. Hemus, Dada's Women, New Haven, 2009, p. 146.

Exhibited
New York, Montross Gallery, Pictures by Jean Crotti, Marcel Duchamp, Albert Gleizes, Jean Metzinger, April 1916.
Philadelphia, J.E. McClees Galleries, Philadelphia's First Exhibition of Advanced Modern Art, May-June 1916.
New York, Bourgeois Galleries, Modern Art: Arranged by a Group of European and American Artists in New York, February-March 1917, p. 5, no. 16.
New York, Cosmopolitan Club, December 1917.
Paris, Grand Palais des Champs-Elysées, Salon des Indépendants, January-February 1920.
Paris, Galerie Montaigne, Exposition des oeuvres de Suzanne Duchamp et Jean Crotti: Tabu, April 1921, no. 18.
Paris, Galerie Jeanne Castel, Les oeuvres de Jean Crotti, October-November 1936, no. 6.
Paris, Musée Galliéra, Rétrospective: Jean Crotti, December 1959-January 1960, no. 106.
Fribourg, Musée d'art et d'histoire, Jean Crotti, May-June 1973, p. 20, no. 18 (illustrated; with incorrect cataloguing).
London, Hayward Gallery, Dada and Surrealism Reviewed, January-March 1978, p. 44, no. 2.2 (illustrated).
Kunsthalle Bern; Paris, Musée national d'art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou; Houston Museum of Fine Arts and Philadelphia Museum of Art, Tabu Dada: Jean Crotti and Suzanne Duchamp, 1915-1922, January 1983-January 1984, pp. 12, 14-15, 20, 29-30, 31, 33, 37, 47, 49-50, 55, 69, 75, 83, 89 and 129-130, no. 8 (illustrated, p. 96; illustrated again in a reproduction of The Evening World article, p. 31).