Marcel Duchamp: The Bachelor Stripped Bare: A Biography

by Alice Goldfarb Marquis

Marcel The Bachelor Stripped Bare is not the first full-length biography of Duchamp, but it is the first to present him in all his human contradictions and to take a refreshingly objective look at his real contribution to modern art. The well-known facts are explored Duchamp's myriad personal relations (with family, lovers, collectors and artists ranging from Man Ray, Picabia and Breton to the Stettheimer sisters and the Arensbergs); the creation of major works such as the "readymades" and the "Large Glass"; his passion for chess and supposed abandonment of art. But beyond this, author Alice Goldfarb Marquis looks past the diffident, humorous mask that Duchamp wore with acquaintance and intimate alike, to explore the passions and insecurities that motivated many of his artistic and personal evolutions. She separates the artist from the con artist, to determine just how profound an influence Duchamp has really been. Based on numerous unpublished sources and first-hand interviews, Marcel The Bachelor Stripped Bare stands as a groundbreaking contribution to the ever-burgeoning field of Duchamp studies.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, France, Biography

368 pages, Hardcover

First published September 15, 2002

Reviews

[Andy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting read for those into Duchamp. A true biography telling of his life, alter-ego, art, and the mysteries behind the man and his art. The author spends a lot of time describing and analyzing the work "Large Glass," which she contends is the most important work of Duchamp's career. I felt that she did not pay as much attention to other groundbreaking works including the impact of ready-mades on popular culture and the art world. That said, I feel closer to Duchamps work, as I feel closer to the man who made it.

[Brian Kovesci · Rating 4 out of 5]

Marcel Duchamp was a confident, interesting dude who got just enough attention and had just enough influence to turn the art world on its side.

"He had fled from a promising career as a painter in 1918, abandoned his major work in 1923, transferred all his creative impulses to his brash alter ego Rrose Sélavy, and rejected the central role he could have filled among various artistic movements: the Cubists, Dadaists, or Surrealists. Finally, he manage, through judicious errors and omissions, to defeat his principal stated ambition - to become a chess champion." (P. 187)

"The Duchamp effect on art has been summed up as total freedom, the artists' absolute right to decide what is art." (p. 309)

"It took only a few decades for modernism to be toppled by a kind of rambunctious anarchy that has been unable to invent a more touching name for itself than post-modernism. Unlike modernism, this movement has built little and destroyed much, and it reveres Marcel Duchamp as its Pied Piper, its exemplar, and sometimes even its saint. To many of his followers in the art world, his message has been distilled to: 'Talk softly and carry a bit shtick." (p. 310)

[Michael Dashkin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Have you ever read a biography where the biographer seems to really dislike the person she's writing about?

Understandable if the subject is Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, or the Hillside Strangler. But Duchamp? What did he do to her? Does everything short of calling him a big 'ol phony, without actually coming right out and saying it.

You don't often see people this annoyed with someone, where the person isn't their former boyfriend or girlfriend.

In the final pages she gets to why she's pissed at him: not so much his own work as the corrosive influence she believes he's had on contemporary art, where artists recycle his ideas, but lacking Duchamp's sense of humor.

[Joann]

Duchamp’s Nude Descending a Staircase is one of my favorite paintings so I was looking forward to reading this biography of him. There’s nothing particularly wrong with the book, I just don’t think there is really enough material for a book as there was a lot of repetition. I enjoyed this author’s book on Pop Art; this one was not equal to it.

[Lance Grabmiller · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good biography of Marcel Duchamp, but it has some repetitions and the author seems a little lost on how to proceed through certain periods or talk about certain subjects. This is not entirely the author's fault as Duchamp made himself a tricky subject. The author seems to have an underlying dislike of any art after Duchamp which I found a little troubling.

[Suhaila · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading the author's exploration of Duchamp's poetic wordplay, his conceptual work seem even more enigmatic.

[Michael Springer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing how overstated art becomes, yet still how creative the human soul.