In Defense of the Sharjah Art Biennial

May 13, 2011 The Sharjah Biennial, the oldest and most respected biennial in the Middle East hosted by the eponymous Sharjah Art Foundation in the United Arab Emirates, is about to close its doors this Sunday, May 16. It remained opened for two months, and has, in that brief time, also become the focus of a whirlwind scandal concerning the contention between the contrarian secularism of modern art and the devout religiosity of the region's general population. The situation tha.. read more...

Revitalized and Analyzed: Elisofon’s Duchamp Descends a Staircase

May 8, 2011 WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. -- Allison Pappas, the 2010-2011 Judith M. Lenett fellow in Williams College’s Graduate Program in the History of Art will speak about her efforts in restoring three early twentieth-century prints at this spring’s Judith M. Lenett Memorial Lecture.  Pappas will discuss the interface of photojournalistic prints and museum art, and the her on-going restoration treatment, taxed with art historical research, in mending the work of Lewis H.. read more...

How Man Ray Took on Lautreamount

May 3, 2011 In a recent post I compared Duchamp's assemblage of the bicycle wheel atop the stool to the Comte de Lautreamont (aka Isidore Ducasse)'s notorious saying: "as beautiful as the chance meeting of an umbrella and a sewing machine on a table." The latter, I argued, was radically disjunctive in a way that the bicycle wheel was not and furthermore that Lautreamont's image really only makes sense in language. Recently however, I was proven somewhat (I emphasize somewhat.. read more...

The Great Peeps Extravaganza: A Duchamp edition

May 2, 2011 Pioneer Press, a daily running out of St. Paul, just concluded its 2011 Pioneer Press Marshmallow Peeps Diorama and Video Contest. . For those of you who do not keep up with local news in St. Paul, Minnesota or with the near cult favorite kingdom of Peeps, the Peeps Diorama contest has been an annual tradition for the inhabitants of the Twin Cities for the past 8 years. And Peeps are those pink and neon colored soft marshmallow candies, often shaped into teen.. read more...

"Who's Your Dada?": Com&Com Commission a Readymade Baby

April 30, 2011 Com&Com's latest project offers to bring a work of art to life. Or perhaps, it would be more apt to say that they aim to transform life into a work of art, quite literally. Last month, the Swiss arts duo, comprised of Marcus Gossolt and Johannes M. Hedinger, proposed this unusual arrangement: they will pay a Russian couple, chosen from applications submitted online, $10,000 to name their baby "Dada." The conditions are simple: the couple must poss.. read more...

Duchamp Owns Everything

April 29, 2011 Several nights ago, I ate dinner at the apartment of a couple who had pasted a copy of the famous "Art History Poster," up in their bathroom (so there was plenty of time to study it while digesting potato strudel and too much wine). It's the print with a long laundry-list of artists defined on the basis of what they "own": Flavin Owns Neon, Hirst Owns the Pharmacy, Judd Owns Shelves, Picasso Owns the Century, Gilbert owns George, Calder owns Mobiles, etc. .. read more...

Warhol’s Self-Portrait to sell at Christie’s

April 27, 2011 Before Warhol was Warhol, there was Duchamp.  In fact Andy Warhol (1928-1987), the arbiter of Pop Art and cool, was greatly influenced by Duchamp’s ready-made concept and redefinition of art.  He was the high priest of engaging “ready-made” objects, perhaps photos, with the finer mechanics of art such as acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas; which dominated his oeuvre.   Among his seminal works is this four-paneled self-portrait aptly tit.. read more...

Vassar Students Explore the Dizzying Effects of Duchamp’s Rotoreliefs

April 24, 2011 What's part turntable, part optical-art, part children's toy? A Duchamp rotorelief: a colored, spiral-patterned disk the artist designed to create a three-dimensional visual effect when spun (hence the term "relief"). Duchamp designed them in 1935, and tried unsuccessfully to sell them, not on the art market, but at Concours Lapie, a trade-fair for Inventors. They were first exhibited at  jazz club called La Cachette, where they spun at a booth you'd otherwise.. read more...

Jodorowsky Contends with the Surrealist Ego

April 23, 2011 Those who are not yet familiar with Alejandro Jodorowsky's works would do well to check them out. His surreal, and Surreal, films have always artfully, and pleasurably, wreaked havoc upon their viewers' minds. They are always monstrous to behold and can be absolutely devastating to watch and enjoy. His infamous masterpieces, El Topo (1970) and Holy Mountain (1973) became cult classics almost immediately upon release, however limited those releases may have been. .. read more...