Marcel Broodthaers filled his brief, 12-year artistic career with more ideas and works than most artists manage in a lifetime. This career began in 1964, following a period of more than two decades laboring in some obscurity as a poet in the Belgian Surrealist circle of Rene Magritte (a crucial mentor for Broodthaers) and Paul Nouge. He also wrote articles on art during these years, including early critiques of Pop art. Broodthaers' first exhibition, held that year in Brussels, was accompanied by a now-famous announcement: -I, too, asked myself if I could not sell something and succeed in...