Duchampian News & Views
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The Bell & The Glass
July 25, 2010Christian Marclay’s video tribute to the Liberty Bell and Marcel Duchamp’s Large Glass treats the one object like the musical instrument it was intended to be and the other as a species of musical score — that is, as the visual representation and record of sound. While critics are mixed, the "Cagean-Duchampian" dimension of the work is clear.
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The Stolen Exhibit
July 22, 2010 "The ECHO exhibit at the Albright-Knox is about appropriation—borrowing, stealing, ripping off and recycling—in art, and opens with the two modern era pathfinders of the practice, Marcel Duchamp from the first part of the 20th century, and Andy Warhol from the second. "Art always appropriated, in spades, but before the modern era what it appropriated was just art. What is called art. Painting, sculpture, architecture. Styles, forms, subjects. &q.. read more... -
Taking the Readymade Approach out for a Spin
July 21, 2010Philadelphia-area artist Joe Dillon III invokes the legacy of Duchamp’s readymades when explaining his mechanically assisted "spin art," but a closer spiritual ancestor may be the rotoreliefs. Dillon’s art reproduces the chance operations of the rotating paint spray seen at carnivals on large-format pegboards. The end effect resembles a mandala, which is to say a rotorelief at rest (or enshrined in the museum).
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Memories of Paik Nam-June
July 20, 2010 Shigeko Kubota, widow of pioneering video artist Paik Nam-June and a noted member of the Fluxus movement in her own right, has published a memoir of her married life. Details of her privileged relationship with Paik (and, of course, vice versa) emerge in the text. For example, apparently her installation Marcel Duchamp's Grave played a significant influence on his own V-yramid... read more... -
Lady Gaga Pays Tribute
July 15, 2010 Pop diva Lady Gaga, known for her ability to bridge high concepts with bawdy delivery, has paid a characteristically flashy tribute to the work of Marcel Duchamp by having a hand-inscribed urinal delivered to London fashion boutique SHOWstudio.com. The piece -- named Armitage Skanks after its industrial manufacturer -- bears a scatological message from Gaga outlining her relationship to Duchamp and the role of humor in her own career. Although some have reported that the .. read more... -
Uncurated Art Show Hits Snag
July 14, 2010 The "Artomatic" collective of several hundred Washington-area artists will not be able to exhibit together before 2011 at the earliest because, so far, no space large enough to contain their work has been contracted. (Reported early negotiations with a local junior high school may or may not be progressing.) Given the uncurated, unjuried and unrestrained nature of the group's shows, critics have been prone to recollect Marcel Duchamp's early difficulties with (and .. read more... -
Dennis Hopper, Duchampian
July 13, 2010 A major retrospective of the artistic career of late actor Dennis Hopper is receiving uneven reviews. After genuflecting to Hopper's apparent influences and enthusiasms -- a bit of Warhol here, an encounter with Duchamp there, Basquiat, Rauschenberg -- critics are almost invariably forced to reflect on the nature of Hopper as primarily a performer, a non-artist in the visual sense, an amateur. Some mourn the artist that could have evolved out of this slurry of modern and cont.. read more... -
New Man Ray Found
July 12, 2010Two lost Man Ray pieces — one a mobile assemblage of wooden coat hangers, the other a postcard — have turned up in Scotland as part of the Lee Miller / Ronald Penrose estate and will be exhibited in Edinburgh through January. If only lost Duchamp pieces could turn up so often!
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The Visual Art of John Cage
July 9, 2010Indeterminacy — in the sense used by Duchamp in the Standard Stoppages or the Musical Erratum — was a core compositional value for John Cage. His visual work demonstrates similar impetus, from Not Wanting To Say Anything About Marcel onward. A major retrospective of Cage’s paintings and other visual work in the London suburb of Gateshead explores these points.
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