Marcel Duchamp

Though the world knew him as the rule-breaking, gender-bending grandmaster of Dada, French artist Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968) considered himself a chess player above all else. He competed nationally and internationally, earned the rank of master, published treatises on strategy and even developed a problem that is still unsolved to this day. For Duchamp, the theory and practice of chess had a significant effect on his artistic practice. He saw the pieces as a kind of alphabet, and their movement around the chessboard created an endless array of poems. In Knight Moves to Remis, German art historian Astrid Honold and chess expert Michail Chatzidakis walk through the 315 surviving games that Duchamp is known to have played, providing art historical diagrams and position analysis throughout.

More than any other modern artist, Marcel Duchamp challenged and transformed the very definition of art. Published to accompany the first North American retrospective of his work in more than 50 years, the volume features the world's largest collection of Duchamp's work, bringing together such iconic works as Fountain and Nude Descending a Staircase for the first time in decades. Beautifully illustrated with more than 400 works spanning six decades—including painting, sculpture, readymades, film, photography and ephemera—and featuring a deeply researched chronology interwoven with archival and documentary material, Marcel Duchamp offers a new generation the first opportunity to experience the breadth of Duchamp's revolutionary and provocative work, strongly associated with the Surrealist and Dada movements. An expansive introduction by curators Ann Temkin, Michelle Kuo and Matthew Affron explores Duchamp's radical rethinking of art and the museum, transformation of authorship, innovative exhibition and installation displays, and lifelong dedication to changing the relationship between art and life. Revealing new dimensions of his conceptual brilliance, subversive wit and lasting impact on generations of artists, Marcel Duchamp is a rich visual compendium and an essential resource for anyone seeking to understand an artist who changed the course of modern art.
Although Marcel Duchamp (American, born France, 1887–1968) defied definition or association with any single movement, he is perhaps the most impactful artist of the modern era in Europe as well as in the United States. Despite his place as a central figure in numerous artistic groups in both countries—including Cubism, Dada and Surrealism—Duchamp resisted categorization, prioritizing creative individuality. Though he is primarily remembered as an artist, he was also a curator, conservator, art advisor, professional chess player, writer, inventor and celebrity.

Over six sessions between September 1951 and November 1952, Marcel Duchamp sat down with collectors and gallerists Harriet and Sidney Janis for a wide-ranging conversation about his inspirations and working processes, and his many opinions on the workings of the modern art world and its histories. The Janises, owners of the influential Sidney Janis Gallery, were ardent supporters of modern art and close friends with Duchamp. Harriet, an accomplished author, led the interviews with an eye toward writing a monograph on Duchamp, though this was never realized. Now, this previously unknown chronicle is available for the first time through the efforts of Carroll Janis, Sidney and Harriet's son. Under Harriet's expert guidance, Duchamp holds forth on his artistic philosophies, his career, his friends, his rivals and his lifelong obsession with chess. He provides an inside look at some of his most famous works, from his controversial Readymades to The Large Glass. Contextualized with illustrations, annotations and an introduction by Carroll Janis, this publication is a rich treasure trove of information on one of the 20th century's most controversial, groundbreaking and larger-than-life artists.
Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968) dismantled the boundaries of what constitutes a work of art. Although he began his career as a painter, Duchamp was also a curator, conservator, art advisor, professional chess player, writer, inventor and celebrity. Following the completion of his conceptual masterpiece, The Large Glass (1915–23), he abandoned traditional artmaking altogether. Today he is best known for his Readymades—ordinary objects such as a urinal or bicycle wheel, elevated to works of art—which challenged traditional aesthetics and redefined authorship.

Two of the most dynamic minds in art history—Italian polymath Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) and French American proto-conceptualist Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968)—are separated by almost five hundred years. Mirror Image: Marcel Duchamp and Leonardo da Vinci brings these visionaries together in a groundbreaking publication by visual artist, writer, curator and videographer Donald Shambroom (born 1950), accompanying an exhibition at Sean Kelly New York. Mirror Image follows Duchamp through Paris, Munich and New York to Renaissance Italy via the writings of the High Renaissance master and into an artistic practice that would change art as we know it. This volume uncovers da Vinci's unlikely yet undeniable influence on Duchamp's revolutionary practice through comparisons of da Vinci's texts and Duchamp's notes alongside visual analyses of their works, offering a new narrative connecting two titans of art.

This epic 850-page volume is the new comprehensive appraisal of the endlessly inspirational art of Marcel Duchamp, following the previous classic Duchamp surveys by Arturo Schwartz for Thames & Hudson in 1969 and Pontus Hulten for MIT Press in 1993. Published to accompany an exhibition at the Museum MMK für Moderne Kunst (the first in two decades to present works spanning all phases of the artist’s oeuvre), it features texts by leading philosophers, theorists and critics Jacques Caumont, Françoise Le Penven, Huey Copeland, Maurizio Lazzarato, Quentin Meillassoux, Peter Osborne, Legacy Russell and Winnie Wong. Rarely seen archival images of Duchamp at work and at play are interspersed throughout reproductions of his iconic paintings, drawings, sculptures, found objects, publications and editions, to convey the singular integration of life and art for this exemplary "respirateur," as well as spreads from Dada and Surrealist publications and ephemera, and even chess journals. This volume is unrivaled as an account of Duchamp’s lifelong ingenuity, wit, craftsmanship and subversiveness.
Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968) studied painting in Paris. In 1912 he exhibited his controversial "Nude Descending a Staircase," and by 1913 he had abandoned traditional painting and drawing for more experimental forms, including mechanical drawings, studies and notations. In 1914 he introduced his readymades. Duchamp became associated with the Dada movement in Paris and in New York, where he settled permanently in 1942.

In all his work, French visionary Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968)—Dadaist, Surrealist and progenitor of conceptual art—challenged the traditional dichotomy between original and copy. By replicating his own creations, with variable dimensions and in limited editions, Duchamp radically redefined what constitutes an artwork and, by extension, the identity of the artist. This volume places at its center the Boite en valise No. 1 in the Peggy Guggenheim Collection. Tellingly signed “From or by Marcel Duchamp or Rrose Selavy,” the portable gallery contains 69 small-scale copies and color reproductions and photographs of the artist’s principal works with additions in pencil, watercolor and ink. The concepts of double, original, copy and replica are discussed and analyzed through numerous works from some of the world’s most important museums and several private collections.

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Marcel Duchamp, the artist’s first legendary monograph and draft catalogue raisonné, was written by art historian and novelist Robert Lebel and published in French in 1959; later that same year, it was translated into English by George Heard Hamilton for Grove Press. The book was a cooperation between Lebel and Duchamp, and beyond Lebel’s extensive writing and bibliography, additional chapters were authored by Duchamp, H.P. Roché and André Breton. The coupling of these texts with diverse archival photographs and an illustrated compendium of Duchamp’s artworks delivered a complex and personal rendering of the artist’s life and inner circle. For the first time since its release more than 60 years ago, this landmark publication is back in circulation with Hauser & Wirth Publishers’ meticulous facsimile of the English edition, reflecting everything from its hand-tipped images to its recto-verso dust jacket appearing as close to the original as possible.

Fully authorized by artist Jean-Jacques Lebel—Robert Lebel’s son—and the Association Marcel Duchamp, the facsimile is accompanied by a supplement volume of essays and archival material that tells the story of Duchamp and Lebel’s close collaboration, and, as contributor Michael Taylor writes, how the original publication signified a "sea change in the artist’s receptivity to critical interpretation." The supplement includes texts by both Robert and Jean-Jacques Lebel and a newly discovered note by Man Ray, among a bevy of photographs from the Lebel and Duchamp archives, extending the story presented in the 1959 edition.

Robert Lebel’s analysis of Duchamp’s oeuvre remains fresh to this day, as does the book’s design, which was personally supervised by the artist. Hauser & Wirth Publishers reanimated Marcel Duchamp with the curatorial-design firm fluid, who recast the original typefaces as digital fonts, positioning each letter and image exactly as it was in the original. To achieve a near-exact facsimile, fluid consulted with paper conservators and printers to recreate the book with modern materials that match those available in 1959. This precise production quality assures that today’s readers will experience this historic book as Marcel Duchamp and Robert Lebel intended.

In 1917, the newly formed Society of Independent Artists received an unusual submission for its inaugural exhibit in New York: a porcelain urinal signed with the name “R. Mutt.” The Society’s board members agreed to accept it into the exhibition, but they decided at the last minute to omit the piece, entitled Fountain, from the final display. It was later revealed that the artist Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968) had submitted the piece to the Society, of which he himself was a member. Today, the Fountain remains a symbol of antiestablishment creativity, questioning what does and does not constitute art and who has the authority to make that distinction.

This publication brings together an impressive amount of research as it considers the context of Duchamp’s piece and its continued legacy, while rejecting the recently mooted thesis that Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven had created the work.

With his sharp wit and love of controversy, Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968) pushed every possible boundary in the art world across his vast body of work, from his iconic urinal-as-sculpture Fountain piece to his drag alter ego Rrose Sélavy.

Founded in 2009, the Duchamp Research Centre operates out of the Staatliche Museum Schwerin in Germany, using its impressive 92-piece Duchamp collection as the basis for its interdisciplinary exploration of the artist’s life and work. Since 2011, the Research Centre has published the results of its investigations in a series entitled Poiesis after the philosophical term for bringing something new into existence—an idea that perfectly describes Duchamp’s pioneering work. This is the fifth volume in the series.

Produced by Marcel Duchamp, Beatrice Wood and Henri-Pierre Roché, only two issues of the Blind Man ever appeared, but these included a who’s who of the New York and Paris avant-gardes: Mina Loy, Walter Conrad Arensberg, Francis Picabia, Gabrielle Buffet, Allen Norton, Clara Tice, Alfred Stieglitz, Charles Demuth, Charles Duncan, Erik Satie, Carl Van Vechten and Louise Norton all appeared in its pages.

Allegedly, the fate of the Blind Man was decided in a chess game between Roché and Picabia (who was about to put out his own Dada publication, 391). And the magazine went out with a bang—its final issue has gone down in art history for featuring Stieglitz’s iconic photograph of Duchamp’s “Fountain” and a defense of that work, seen now as perhaps the most important artwork of the 20th century.

The Blind Man: New York Dada, 1917 brings back the magazine in a facsimile reprint, along with reproductions of the Ridgefield Gazook and the poster for the Blind Man’s Ball designed by Beatrice Wood, all packaged together in a handsome boxed set.

One of the most important and enigmatic pieces of modernist art, "Boîte-en-valise" (Box in a Valise) was assembled by Marcel Duchamp between 1935 and 1941. The portable suitcase contains "the sum of his artistic work" up to that point. Perhaps in premonition of the coming war, and over years without a fixed address, Duchamp reproduced his work in a format that enabled him to easily transport his "complete works" at any time. Though the artist eventually made 300 copies of his box, many are behind glass in museums and private collections.

This is the first ever reinterpretation of the legendary book-object, conceptualized by French artist Mathieu Mercier and now available to a broader audience. At once a work in and of itself, and a reproduction in the Duchampian spirit, this miniature museum contains 69 reproductions of Duchamp's most celebrated creations, including the famous "Fountain," Nude Descending a Staircase" and the "Large Glass." Mercier has reproduced the bulk of the contents of Duchamp's original box in paper form, designing everything to scale. Playful and accessible, the "Boîte" reflects Duchamp's desire to display his works outside the museum and gallery system.

Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968) studied painting in Paris. In 1912 he exhibited his controversial "Nude Descending a Staircase," and by 1913 he had abandoned traditional painting and drawing for more experimental forms, including mechanical drawings, studies and notations. In 1914 he introduced his readymades. Duchamp became associated with the Dada movement in Paris and in New York, where he settled permanently in 1942.