Duchampian News & Views

  • Reproductions from the MoMA’s collection at the Atlantic Avenue/Pacific Street subway station

    The MoMA is currently displaying large-scale reproductions of works from their collection, including Marcel Duchamp's Bicycle Wheel (1913), at the Atlantic Avenue/Pacific Street subway station in Brooklyn.  The display, which is intended to increase awareness of the museum's collection, will last until March 15, 2009.    The display is accompanied by audio commentries on selected works, which can be accessed by calling 1-888-939-MoMA , as well as a website whic.. read more...
  • Chess and Art

    In a blog post Jennifer Shahade, who annotated 15 chess games for the upcoming book Marcel Duchamp: The Art of Chess, argues against the idea that Duchamp "renounced art for chess".  Instead, she says, Duchamp's chess playing acutally contributed to his art.  He created works inspired by chess, from his early work The Chess Game (1910) The Large Glass (The Bride Stripped Bare by her Bachelors, Even) (1915-1923).   Shahade also argues that chess a.. read more...
  • Yves Saint Laurent Auction will Feature Work by Duchamp

    An upcoming auction of art from the collection of Yves Saint Laurent will feature Duchamp's piece Belle Haleine - Eau de Voilette (1921). The piece, which is a perfume bottle with a photo of Duchamp dressed as a woman on it, is estimated to sell for 1 million Euros.  The auction was organized by Saint Laurent's longtime partner Pierre Bergé following Saint Laurent's death last year.  All proceeds from the auction will go to scientific and Aids research... read more...
  • Controversial Exhibition Features Work By Marcel Duchamp

    Starting September 22, the Hamburger Banhof Museum in Berlin will present the collection of Friedrich Christian Flick, which includes work by Marcel Duchamp.  The exhibition has been critisized for its connection to Flick's grandfather "who made his fortune from the war arms industry during the Nazi regime using Jewish slave labourers".  Because of this, many within the Jewish community have protested against the exhibit.  However, the curator ".. read more...
  • The Marcel Duchamp I Married

    In an excerpt from her memoir A Marriage in Check: The Heart of the Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelor, Even, Duchamp's wife Lydie Fischer Sarazin-Levassor tells about their relationship.  Although they initially  had a happy marriage, Sarazin-Levassor soon found herself excluded from Duchamp's life.  Duchamp essentially abandoned his wife, and altough she atttempted to put up a facade of a happy marriage, the two eventually divorced a year after marrying.&nbs.. read more...
  • Jerry Saltz’s Idol Thoughts

    In his article Idol Thoughts, Jerry Saltz considers the commonly held view that Duchamp is"an 'anti-artist' and an 'iconoclast.'".  Saltz believes this view is "entirely false" and in fact Duchamp "wasn't against art at all; he was against the hypocritical aura surrounding it".  Instead of seeking to destroy art, Duchamp's work "is an incarnation of the invisible essence of art" that combines image and idea in a way that had n.. read more...
  • Man Ray: Unconcerned but not Indifferent at the Hague Museum of Photography

    The Hague Museum of Photography exhibit Man Ray: Unconcerned but not Indifferent, which started on  January 24 and continues until April 19 2009, "is the first exhibition to reveal Man Ray's complete creative process".  It features more than 300 items, including photography, readymades, and paintings and "examines the four separate creative phases in Man Ray’s life...each [of which] is closely connected with the place where he was living (New Yo.. read more...
  • Marcel Duchamp:Etant donnes at the Philidelphia Museum of Art

    The Philidelphia Museum of Art will present the exhibit Marcel Duchamp: Étant donnés.  The exhibit includes the work Étant donnés, which has been described by Jasper Johns as “the strangest work of art in any museum”, plus "close to eighty works of art related to its installment, including all the known studies, photographs, erotic objects, and other materials."  The  exhibit was created to celebrate the fortiet.. read more...
  • The Heir & the Cowboy:
    Social Predisposition, Mediation & Artistic Profession in Marcel Duchamp & Jackson Pollock

    "Marcel Duchamp enjoyed the security and the support derived from his family’s station and from having the social and cultural capital he accumulated throughout his personal evolution. As a result of this inheritance, the artist was able to postpone remarkably the moment of his consecration. Jackson Pollock hailed from a family of farmers and had to go to great lengths to make a place for himself in the avant-garde art of the mid 20th century. The social space Duch.. read more...