Duchampian News & Views
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Sound and Sculpture
May 11, 2010The emergence of sound art as a critical category has sparked new interest in the "imaginary sound sculptures" of Marcel Duchamp and his disciples like John Cage. Acoustic artist Susan Philipsz is even up for the Turner Prize. But how do these abstract soundscapes differ from the conventional category of music, and how do they converge with the pure Duchampian concept?
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Another Duchampian Tribute Wins a Prize
May 7, 2010This seems to be the season for Duchamp-inspired sculpture to win awards at regional art exhibitions. Ontario sculptor Arne Roosman recently won the Victoria Wines Award for the "Homage to Marcel Duchamp" he entered in the Art Gallery of Bancroft’s recent invitational show.
Judge Allan O’Marra called the piece "a fun and cheeky marriage of materials" and "a clever nod to art history."
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Richard Jackson’s Fountainous Bears
May 6, 2010 Often considered a "neo-Dadaist," sculptor Richard jackson enjoys punning themes, the deflation of "art" as a sublime category and intense primary color. His Pump Pee Doo, currently on display in Vancouver, is generally considered a complicated reference to Marcel Duchamp’s famous urinal, Fountain. While some critics dismiss it as a one-note extravaganza, others concede that it's pretty bright. And there are those who ponder what all this has t.. read more... -
The Artist as Prankster
May 4, 2010The legend of Duchamp continues to evolve as it spreads over the world and across the decades. The Deccan Herald of Bangalore recently printed a fairly lengthy appraisal of the artist’s career and influence that hits the high points of the Fountain’s trajectory in particular. Sometimes it’s good to get back to basics.
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Chocolate Grinder Tribute Wins Prize
May 3, 2010Joseph Saccio won the "best in show" award at the recent Art of the Northeast competition for his "Flowers for Duchamp." The mixed-media sculpture looks back to the Chocolate Grinder in a new organic format. Playful but sadly non-functional.
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Banksy Film Evokes Duchamp
April 30, 2010Reviews of the new film "Exit Through the Gift Shop" often invoke Duchamp as the patron saint of the deadpan artistic fake-out. While it would be simplistic to dismiss the Fountain as what the British would call a "piss take," there is something Duchampian in the play between simulacrum and authenticity that’s apparently at stake here.
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Duchamp Runs Away With Christie’s Sale
April 29, 2010 Duchampiania brought in $214,000 at Christie's recent New York sale of "Prints and Multiples," with seven of the eight works on the block fetching higher-than-expected prices. The centerpiece of the auction was a posthumous copy of the Boîte-en-Valise, which sold for $92,500; earlier estimates valued it at $50,000 to $70,000. Other works of Duchampian interest included a copy of the Green Box ($35,000), a "scuffed" set of rotoreliefs ($25,000), two .. read more... -
Joan Bakewell Remembers Duchamp
April 28, 2010Now 77, Joan Bakewell, the BBC news presenter who interviewed Marcel Duchamp in the summer of 1968, remembers him as one of the most "important" people she spoke with during her career. As she notes, Duchamp was "extraordinary, smiled a lot, smoked big cigars."
The interview itself is available here.
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Museum Mangles and the Fountain
April 27, 2010 A recent blog post listing various cases in which museum goers accidentally damaged art on display is amusing, but seems strangely silent where deliberate vandalism or "performance" is involved. Where's Tony Shafrazi's defacement of Guernica? All the efforts over the years to destroy the Mona Lisa? Where's the Fountain? While attempts by Pierre Pinoncelli and others to damage or "intervene with" Duchamp's urinal may not qualify as accidents, they definite.. read more...