“W
e started to paint each bosom on the floor in my studio but before we started to do that, I took a conte crayon, pink like this, and I painted the nipple. . . . I said this looks terrible on the book without something. So I added the black velvet to put around it to carry it out and get the bosom like it was coming out of a black velvet dress. Then I present it to Marcel, dressed up with the black velvet. And I said to him in English ‘please touch.’ And he answered me in French, ‘Prière de toucher,’ and. . . that’s how it started.” —Enrico Donati, interview with curator Ann Temkin, 1997
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