Posted by Glenn Harvey on November 03, 19102 at 09:07:07:
In Reply to: Opinions about Duchamp bio by Alice Marquis? posted by Still Art Cravin' on October 03, 19102 at 11:47:12:
I finally got hold of a copy of this new version whilst on a recent visit to the Philladelphia Museum - It is a peculiar mix of impressive research and laughable blunders. It is less of a hagiography than the Tomkins bio but is infected even more by an authorial arrogance that at times gets unintentionally very funny. For example, Duchamp's compensation portrait in the catalogue of the 'First Papers of Surrealism' show is, according to Goldfarb Marquis, 'supposedly'(!) by Ben Shahn...and the author repeats the basic error of her previous version of the book in that she doesn't seem to realise that there is an abandoned painting of a nude on the verso of 'Apropo Little Sister' to which Duchamp's scatological exclamation ('study of a nude - shit') refers.
I found the latter parts of the book the most rewarding and well written - for example, the stuff about Duchamp's finances goes some way to explain the mystery of how he survived when the legacy from his father had run its course.