Marcel Duchamp

by Marcel Duchamp

A catalog of the paintings, collages, sketches, and sculptures of the artist who created the Nude Descending a Staircase

128 pages, Hardcover

Published November 15, 1988

About the author

Marcel Duchamp (also known as Rrose Sélavy) was a French artist (he became an American citizen in 1955) whose work and ideas had considerable influence on the development of post-World War I Western art, and whose advice to modern art collectors helped shape the tastes of the Western art world.

While he is most often associated with Dada and Surrealism, his participation in Surrealism was largely behind the scenes, and after being involved in New York Dada, he barely participated in Paris Dada.

Thousands of books and articles attempt to interpret Duchamp's artwork and philosophy, but in interviews and his writing, Duchamp only added to the mystery. The interpretations interested him as creations of their own, and as reflections of the interpreter.

A playful man, Duchamp prodded thought about artistic processes and art marketing, not so much with words, but with actions such as dubbing a urinal "art" and naming it Fountain. He produced relatively few artworks as he quickly moved through the avant-garde rhythms of his time.

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