In Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes’s machine pictures, painted gears, shafts, and wires create obscure contraptions suggesting that the forces of production have run amok. The words included compound the enigma: the phrases "liquid love" and "surface of soluble hopes" appear on Oceanic Spirit. The name of a Hungarian city, "Szegedin" appears on Silence. Ribemont-Dessaignes’s sensational performances at a number of Paris Dada events revealed his combative side: he hurled insults at the audience, promising to "rip out your spoiled teeth, your pummeled ears, your tongue full of sores."

Gallery label from

Dada, June 18–September 11, 2006.

Provenance Research Project

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Katherine S. Dreier (1877-1952), West Redding and Milford, Connecticut, 1920-1953
The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1953. Katherine S. Dreier Bequest.

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Provenance Research Project
The Museum of Modern Art
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Medium Oil on canvas
Dimensions 36 1/4 x 28 7/8" (92.1 x 73.3 cm)
Credit Katherine S. Dreier Bequest
Object number 189.1953
Department Painting & Sculpture

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