By Nana Japaridze
In the annals of art history, intrigue often wears a disguise. From Dadaists in drag to masked street vandals, artists have long hidden behind alter egos, pseudonyms, and second selves. These secret identities can serve as shields, mirrors, or keys—tools to unlock different voices, challenge convention, and sometimes poke fun at the art world itself.
Art history, in this sense, reads like a detective story: mysterious signatures, cryptic graffiti tags, and double lives that blur where the artist ends and the character begins. Why do creatives feel compelled to split themselves in two? Some wish to satirize identity, others to escape fame or censorship, and a few simply crave the freedom that comes from pretending to be someone else. Behind every alias lies an artistic revelation. Let’s lift a few of these masks and discover what happens when artists dare to hide in plain sight.
The Dada Detective: Marcel Duchamp Becomes Rrose Sélavy
Paris, 1920s. Among the avant-garde, a new name begins to appear: Rrose Sélavy. The signature, elegant and witty, belonged not to a woman but to Marcel Duchamp, the mischievous pioneer of Dada and conceptual art. Pronounced like “Rose, c’est la vie”—“Rose, that’s life”—the name also hides another pun: “Eros, c’est la vie.”
Read Less