Tribute to Mickey Mouse

The “artist’s multiple” was one of the first forms of “affordable art.” At its broadest, a “Multiple” is an art object, usually in 3D, conceived and created by an artist in an edition. In 1914, Marcel Duchamp produced the first Multiples by including miniature copies of some of his artworks in his “Boite en Valise.” The term “Multiple” was first coined by Paris gallerist Denise Rene in 1966 to describe the works made by her stable of artists. Multiples were seen as a break with traditional artistic categories because they were editions which looked like originals. Repetition was the result of a conscious choice by the artist; paints, photographs and books are generally excluded from the category because they are primarily associated with the process of reproduction. In the 1960’s and 1970’s many artists created multiples as a way of using new industrial production techniques and making their art more widely available. Multiples became carriers of new ideas, and were often subversive or humorous in intent.