Marcel Duchamp

by Gloria Moure

As this century draws to a close, it becomes increasingly clear how profoundly the elusive life and art of Marcel Duchamp have influenced the trajectory of modern art. Duchamp seems to have been one of those rare people with the ability to foreshadow the future, and ever since 1913, when his "Nude Descending a Staircase" created a sensation at the Armory Show in New York, his prophetic vision, his statements and his works have indicated new terrain in which artists could operate. The works Duchamp produced after his precocious and much-publicised retirement from "retinal" art, as early as 1922, have provided the springboard for a number of movements and tendencies in art since the 1950 conceptual art, art-language, multi-media art, happenings and performance art. Duchamp's field of action was one where language, thought and vision acted upon one author, yet he had no messianic pretensions and summarised his attitudes as "Doubt in myself, doubt in everything, in the first place never believing in truth." This publication contains numerous newly researched documents, both written and visual.

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Reviews

[Chris Browning · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice companion to Tomkins’ biography: the introductory notes are just that, with a minimum of depth but enough to put novices into the right frame of mind for the art itself. Which is obviously incredible. Tomkins has most of these in black and white so it’s nice to see them in colour and get a real sense of Duchamp’s developing skill and equally assure grasp of ideas. Until I can get to Philadelphia - which is pretty likely as my wife is from the next state along - to see the originals this will more than do