Posted by DJ on November 02, 19102 at 23:19:51:
Hello,
I read a post down below about a painting being sold on ebay supposedly by Duchamp. It was of the Brooklyn Bridge. Let me tell you a story.
Almost 15 years ago, I was taking a class in art appreciation and one of my assignments was to do my initials in a style of a famous artist. I scoured books looking for ideas and looked up all artists whose name started with "D." I saw, in black and white, a small picture of a painting by Marcel Duchamp of the Brooklyn Bridge. The caption below said that the style of the painting was not the artists typical style and that he had painted it for a friend (either as a request or as a gift). The signature struck me because it was signed in the same type of "strokiness" as the rest of the painting. I recall this vividly because I liked the painting and pondered how I could do these brush strokes for my initials project. Some time went by and I came across what I think was the same painting I saw in the textbook.
Since then I have not been able to find that book again or any other reference to this painting. I began to wonder if I dreamed it all up.
My question is this: Just because an artist's work has not been catalogued, does that mean it doesn't exist? Aren't there things found all the time by famous artists that no one had any record of? The Brooklyn Bridge Bridge was opened to vehicles - May 24, 1883, 5:00 p.m., plenty of time for Duchamp to paint it before he stopped painting. If I had possession of such a painting, how do I go about having the signature "authenticated"? BTW - I have personally compared signatures between this work and others such as "Pharmacie" and they are strikingly VERY similar.
Thanks in advance for your replies.