Marcel Duchamp

"Like the influential artists of centuries past—Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Turner, Goya, Cézanne—Duchamp will take his place in art history according to the unfathomable tastes of future generations. But, despite the avalanche of scholarly dissections of Duchamp's oeuvre, precious little illuminates why he chose to perpetrate his various projects, and how brilliantly he rode the media merry-go-round of the twentieth century. The why is a matter of history intersecting with family, place and personality. The how is a saga teased out of archives, interviews and printed material. But the key to the Duchampian riddle remains the singular individual who tiptoed lightly through an altogether too serious world by never taking anything or anyone seriously, especially himself."

Alice Goldfarb Marquis, excerpted from her biography, Marcel Duchamp: The Bachelor Stripped Bare, MFA Publications.

"One of the most influential artists of the twentieth century," according his New York Times obituary, Marcel Duchamp was a key member of both the Dada and Surrealist avant garde art movements. Deliberately enigmatic and unpredictable, he was the grandson of the French painter and engraver Emile Nicolle, and brother of the artists Jacques Villon, Raymond Duchamp-Villon and Suzanne Duchamp-Crotti. He was equally known for his provocative "Readymade" objects, his influence on such important figures as Peggy Guggenheim and Louise and Walter Conrad Arensberg and his late preoccupation with the strategy game of chess. Without Marcel Duchamp, contemporary art would not be as we know it today.

       

ACTIVE BACKLIST

MARCEL DUCHAMP AND THE FORESTAY WATERFALL
JRP|RINGIER
U.S. $39.95 | CAN $39.95
ISBN: 9783037641569 | TRADE
PUB DATE: 1/31/2011 | In stock

LOOKING THROUGH DUCHAMP’S DOOR
WALTHER KöNIG, KöLN
U.S. $49.95 | CAN $49.95
ISBN: 9783865606051 | TRADE
PUB DATE: 2/28/2010 | In stock

MARCEL DUCHAMP: THE ART OF CHESS
READYMADE PRESS
U.S. $45.00 | CAN $45
ISBN: 9780980055627 | TRADE
PUB DATE: 6/30/2009 | In stock

MARCEL DUCHAMP: WORKS, WRITINGS, INTERVIEWS
POLIGRAFA
U.S. $45.00 | CAN $45
ISBN: 9788434311985 | TRADE
PUB DATE: 10/31/2009 | In stock

        

OUT OF PRINT LISTING

MARCEL DUCHAMP: TU M'
HATJE CANTZ PUBLISHERS
U.S. $35.00 | CAN $35
ISBN: 9783775791274 | TRADE
PUB DATE: 7/2/2003 | Not available

MARCEL DUCHAMP
HATJE CANTZ PUBLISHERS
U.S. $50.00 | CAN $50
ISBN: 9783775711951 | TRADE
PUB DATE: 8/2/2002 | Not available

MARCEL DUCHAMP: RESPIRATEUR
HATJE CANTZ PUBLISHERS
U.S. $39.95 | CAN $39.95
ISBN: 9783775708951 | TRADE
PUB DATE: 4/2/2000 | Not available

CORNELL/DUCHAMP...IN RESONANCE
HATJE CANTZ PUBLISHERS
U.S. $80.00 | CAN $80
ISBN: 9783893224319 | TRADE
PUB DATE: 11/2/1998 | Not available

ARTBOOK CURATED LIBRARY

A DADA LIBRARY

A selection of forthcoming, new, and backlist titles on Dada, featuring such key figures as Key figures include Hans (or Jean) Arp, Erwin Blumenfeld, Kurt Schwitters, Hannah Höch, Max Ernst, Francis Picabia, Man Ray and Marcel Duchamp.

Marcel Duchamp

Marcel Duchamp and the Forestay Waterfall

Edited by Stefan Banz. Text by Paul B. Franklin, Dalia Judovitz, Michael Lüthy, Bernard Marcadé, Herbert Molderings, Francis M. Naumann, Mark Nelson, Molly Nesbit, Dominique Radrizzani, Michael R. Taylor, Philip Ursprung.
Published by JRP|Ringier

In August 1946, Marcel Duchamp spent five weeks in Switzerland, and stayed at the Hotel Bellevue (today, Le Baron Tavernier) near Chexbres, on Lake Geneva. It was here that he discovered the Forestay waterfall, which was to become the starting point for (and ultimately the landscape of) his enigmatic and final masterpiece, "Étant donnés: 1° la chute d'eau, 2° le gaz d'éclairage" ("Given: 1. The Waterfall, 2. The Illuminating Gas"). Now, for the first time, the full significance of the choice of this waterfall is explored. Among the contributors to this volume are Caroline Bachmann, Stefan Banz, Etienne Barilier, Lars Blunck, Ecke Bonk, Paul B. Franklin, Antje von Graevenitz, Dalia Judovitz, Michael Lüthy, Bernard Marcadé, Herbert Molderings, Adeena Mey, Stanislaus von Moos, Francis M. Naumann, Mark Nelson, Molly Nesbit, Dominique Radrizzani, Roman Signer, Michael R. Taylor, Hans Maria de Wolf and Philip Ursprung.

MARCEL DUCHAMP AND THE FORESTAY WATERFALL
$39.95 | In Stock: Order now or contact your local bookstore or museum shop.

Looking through Duchamp’s Door

Art and Perspective in the Work of Duchamp, Sugimoto and Jeff Wall

By Hans Belting.
Published by Walther König, Köln

In this new book by Hans Belting, three essays are united by one theme—the persistence of perspective after its supposed demise in the hands of modernism. Belting addresses perspective in the works of Marcel Duchamp, Hiroshi Sugimoto and Jeff Wall, in the process opening up new approaches to their work. According to Belting, the door that Marcel Duchamp installed for his final masterpiece, “Etant Donnés” (which Belting tells us was inspired by a bout of seasickness on a trip to Buenos Aires) was a decisive touchstone for both Sugimoto and Wall in their formative years, and he demonstrates how they have referenced its maker many times since. Belting's argument, embellished with many illustrations, makes for a thorough reassessment of perspective.

LOOKING THROUGH DUCHAMP’S DOOR
$49.95 | In Stock: Order now or contact your local bookstore or museum shop.

Marcel Duchamp: The Art of Chess

Edited by Francis M. Naumann. Text by Francis M. Naumann, Bradley Bailey, Jennifer Shahade.
Published by Readymade Press

Marcel Duchamp was both an artist and a chess player, but until now, little was known of his chess activities. In analyzing Duchamp's games--seeing how he reacted in specific situations during play--we can better understand how his mind worked, and gain insight into the strategies that motivated his work as an artist. Duchamp saw a correlation between art and chess, and actively sought opportunities to combine the two seemingly unrelated disciplines. Not only did he love the game, but he was aware of the reputation of chess as an intensely cerebral pursuit, and to the end of his life, he remained committed to challenging the French adage "d'ętre bęte comme un peintre" ("to be stupid like a painter"), raising his art to equivalently complex, intellectual heights. Naumann shows us just how deeply intertwined the two activities were for Duchamp.

MARCEL DUCHAMP: THE ART OF CHESS
$45.00 | In Stock: Order now or contact your local bookstore or museum shop.

Marcel Duchamp: Works, Writings, Interviews

Text by Gloria Moure.
Published by Poligrafa

By his own testimony, Marcel Duchamp considered painting a "means of expression, not an end in itself. One means of expression among others, and not a complete end for life at all." His legendary "Large Glass," for example, can be seen as simply the culmination or sum of numerous experiments conducted over an eight-year period. For this reason, every aspect of his oeuvre--painting, installation, writing, interviews--is of potentially equivalent interest, and any Duchamp primer needs to present his more ephemeral contributions, in aphorisms, diagrams and conversation, alongside his visual experiments. Works, Writings, Interviews does this job splendidly, exploring the artist's many-faceted activities, analyzing his work as an entirety and gathering his key interviews and writings.

MARCEL DUCHAMP: WORKS, WRITINGS, INTERVIEWS
$45.00 | In Stock: Order now or contact your local bookstore or museum shop.