'Enigme d'Isidore Ducasse is one of the most captivating and celebrated icons of Dada and Surrealist expression and together with Marcel Duchamp's Readymades, had a profound influence on Post-War artists including Christo. Assembled in New York in 1920, the original work consisted of an unidentified object wrapped in a blanket and tied with rope. It was photographed by Man Ray and then intentionally dismantled. According to Francis Naumann: "Man Ray wanted the viewer to believe that two rather commonplace objects were hidden under the carpet. The only way a viewer could know what they were, though?and thus solve the riddle?was to have been familiar with the writings of the obscure, though extremely influential, French author Isidore Ducasse, whose pseudonym was the Comte de Lau­tréamont. During the near half-century that had passed since his death, Ducasse's writings were largely forgotten?until they were rediscovered by André Breton, who saw the author's outrageous and flamboyant style as a forerunner of dadaism and immediately published excerpts of his writings in Littérature, the avant-garde French magazine that he helped to edit." (Naumann, op. cit., pp. 80-83).Enigme d'Isidore Ducasse is one of the most captivating and celebrated icons of Dada and Surrealist expression and together with Marcel Duchamp's Readymades, had a profound influence on Post-War artists including Christo. Assembled in New York in 1920, the original work consisted of an unidentified object wrapped in a blanket and tied with rope. It was photographed by Man Ray and then intentionally dismantled. According to Francis Naumann: "Man Ray wanted the viewer to believe that two rather commonplace objects were hidden under the carpet. The only way a viewer could know what they were, though?and thus solve the riddle?was to have been familiar with the writings of the obscure, though extremely influential, French author Isidore Ducasse, whose pseudonym was the Comte de Lau­tréamont. During the near half-century that had passed since his death, Ducasse's writings were largely forgotten?until they were rediscovered by André Breton, who saw the author's outrageous and flamboyant style as a forerunner of dadaism and immediately published excerpts of his writings in Littérature, the avant-garde French magazine that he helped to edit." (Naumann, op. cit., pp. 80-83).