Duchampian News & Views
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February 23, 2011 Thanks to the efforts of Rob Myers and cwebber, Duchamp’s infamous ready-made, Fountaine, can now be reproduced by anyone with a 3D printer and used in service of aesthetics, sanitation, or humor as seen fit. Though the updated version has been criticized for its dissemblance to the 1919 original--R. Mutt’s signature is notably absent--Myers doesn’t pretend to have created a replica. Instead, he offers a ready-print with the intentions and potentials of a.. read more...Freeing Art History
with a Ready-Print Urinal? -
Noguchi at the Crossroad of the Century
December 20, 2010 The list of artists who collaborated with sculptor Isamu Noguchi is long and impressive: Brancusi, Kahlo, Gorky, Graham, Cunningham, Ernst, Duchamp and many, many more. A new exhibit at New York's Noguchi Museum examines his life and origins as an artist in the context of his relationships with his initially more established colleagues in the world of dance, sculpture, architecture and the plastic and visual arts. Duchamp considered him an interesting thinker in the field of.. read more... -
Susan Philipsz and the Non-Hidden Noise
December 7, 2010 The description of Turner Prize winner Susan Philipsz as a "sound artist" is raising eyebrows among theoreticians who recall Marcel Duchamp's long shadow at the nexus between the ear and the retina -- which is to say, on the conceptual plane. Like Duchamp, Philipsz is a conceptual artist who works with sound to challenge existing categories and stimulate new experiential connections, but the presence of sound is peripheral to her real concerns. What Philipsz does, .. read more... -
Hanno Otten at JAGR
December 1, 2010The Duchampian is on display in photographer-painter Hanno Otten’s prints being shown now at Philadelphia’s Rittenhouse JAGR space. Otten paints abstract images, then photographs them in order to manipulate scale or focus. Often, the sense of motion emerges — as in the Rotoreliefs that inspired them. (Through February 11.)
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Covering the Walls with History
November 29, 2010An ongoing exhibit of wallpaper in Lausanne highlights a provocative design by Swiss artist Rudolf Herz: alternating portraits of Marcel Duchamp and Adolf Hitler, both photographed by Heinrich Hoffmann. The wallpaper, called Zugzwang — a forced move in chess — has prompted comparisons between the two men, but the overall effect is less politically charged than it is meditative.
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“Pimping” the Fountain
November 24, 2010 Texas sculptor Anthony Thompson Shumate has created a series of objects named after -- and arguably inspired by -- the eternal phrases often recited to artists in lieu of criticism or conventional wisdom. The "pimped out" urinal on display (to use the Houston Press critic's phrase) at the Barbara Davis Gallery is replete with bright industrial paint and fine detailing, and is apparently proudly signed. Its title? "You know I've seen a piece like that before. Do.. read more... -
New York Art Thief Apprehended
November 23, 2010A New York City chauffeur has been convicted of stealing more than $3 millino in art and other possessions from an elderly poet and Pulitzer heir. James Biear stole artwork including Duchamp’s playing card "Mona Lisa," Francis Picabia’s portrait of Jean Cocteau and Andy Warhol’s ketchup-inspired sculpture Heinz 57. Provenance on at least some of the objects was forged for resale.
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Duchampian Alchemy in New Jersey
November 22, 2010 A 3,000-square-foot rural New Jersey house has become what the owner/decorator considers "the museum of the new alchemy" due to its many Duchampian flourishes: found objects as trim, readymade sculpture and even ironic plumbing. The architect attributes his inspiration to Beatrice Wood, "mama of dada." While some of the details may veer into kitsch or even retinal territory, the Duchampian impulse appears strong as well. For more, visit lunaparc.com.. read more... -
The Aesthetics of Chance
November 18, 2010 The Prague Post has a glowing review of Hebert Molderings' new study of the impact of random encounters on Duchamp's artistic production, Duchamp and the Aesthetics of Chance. While the review begins with a salute to the again-ubiquitous urinal, it quickly drills down into the deeper implications of the readymade object. The question, we might ask, is not why a urinal, but why this particular urinal? What grand chain of circumstance and accident leads us to select this partic.. read more...