Object (Le Déjeuner en fourrure) 1936

Curator: Here we have Meret Oppenheim's “Object (Le Déjeuner en fourrure),” a work from 1936 housed here at MoMA. A teacup, saucer, and spoon, entirely covered in gazelle fur. Editor: Well, it’s undeniably unsettling. Tactile, almost inviting, but then you recoil at the thought of actually using it. The absurdity is immediately apparent. Curator: Oppenheim's piece challenges notions of consumption, tradition, and even taste. The object originated from a conversation with Picasso and Dora Maar about surrealism and artistic appropriation in a cafe in Paris. In short, it's a "readymade" elevated, transforming mundane objects into something altogether unexpected and disturbing. Think about how gender roles have been constructed. Tea rituals become sites of questioning the very role of objects in a feminine space, no? Editor: Exactly. I see a commentary on fetishism, an intersection of desire and disgust. Surrealism reveled in disrupting bourgeois sensibilities, but Oppenheim seems to be deliberately challenging the comfort zones. Is she questioning feminine roles, consumerism, the treatment of women as objects of desire? It’s difficult to imagine enjoying a cup of tea. The cup seems to reject its purpose! Curator: Its popularity has, interestingly, varied with contemporary political views about consumption and luxury. Remember its splash at the 1936 International Surrealist Exhibition in Paris? People did not know what to make of the work. But think about how, from that moment forward, ideas about consumer culture would only become increasingly mainstream in Western thought! This "furry breakfast" has acquired an almost humorous legacy. Editor: It certainly leaves a mark. Decades after its making, "Object" still manages to provoke conversation around ideas of comfort, culture, and capitalism, too. I'm still not sure if I’d want a furry cup, though! Curator: Fair enough! Its historical resonance persists. It still provokes!