Duchamp said…

October 1, 2008

“.. ‘ since a three-dimensional object casts a two-dimensional shadow, we should be able to imagine the unknown four-dimensional object whose shadow we are. I for my part am fascinated by the search for a one-dimensional object that casts no shadow at all.’ by Octavio Paz”

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John Cage playing chess with Joan La Barbara

September 30, 2008

“Actually, Cage hadn’t lost every single match with Duchamp. There was one that he definitely won, after a fashion. It happened in Toronto, in 1968. Cage had invited Duchamp and Teeny to be with him on the stage. All they had to do was play chess as usual…”

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The Unholy Trinity

September 29, 2008

"Do you know Rrose Sélavy? No? Humm… Eros, c’est la vie… arroser la vie…Rrose, my dear, is a creation of three provocative artistic figures from 20th century’s early years. Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp and Francis Picabia were good friends with the same sense of humour…"

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Yes, Duchamp’s piece was a pivotal moment

September 26, 2008

A while back, Roger Scruton, the philosopher and writer, wrote this piece on his very occasional blog: The literature of this industry is as empty as the neverending imitations of Duchamp’s gesture. Nevertheless, it has left a residue of skepticism. If anything can count as art, then art ceases to have a point. All that is left is the curious but unfounded fact that some people like looking at some things, others like looking at others."

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Marcel Duchamp Lived Here That Long???

September 25, 2008 "I looked up the address when I got home and freaking Marcel Duchamp lived there from 1942 until he died in 1968. How can that be? We had him that long, and so close (to where I live I mean)?? I had no idea. According to Wikipedia he died in France though, but did live in a Greenwich Village studio for many years. So maybe he didn't die here, but he lived here a long time and produced his last work of art here, years after everyone thought he had stopped making art.".. read more...

Duchamp’s 3 Stoppages Étalon

September 24, 2008 "Many of the stories he tells just don't line up," Shearer says. Consider Three Standard Stoppages, in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, a key early work. Toward the end of 1913, Duchamp said, in his Paris studio, he cut three lengths of thread, each just under one meter long, dropped them from a height of one meter, and affixed the results on three separate canvases---a new standard of measure, incorporating chance and randomness, for the new art of this .. read more...

Agreement between Proa and MAM-SP for Duchamp in Latin America

September 23, 2008 MAM – MUSEU DE ARTE MODERNA DE SÃO PAULO: 15 July - 21 September, 2008 FUNDACION PROA: November 19, 2008 - February, 2009 "Two years after an intensive investigation and production, Fundación Proa today shares with the MAM-SP the success obtained from the critics and public for the exhibition Marcel Duchamp: a work that is not a work "of art", inaugurated in São Paulo last July 15, constituting the artist's largest individual s.. read more...

The art factory and the death of the connoisseur

September 22, 2008

“In Duchamp’s day the ‘art world’ was tiny and the initiates were
ready for a breakthrough­for new ideas and new media, for ‘dada’­and
the big money wasn’t there. Once we accept that the artist’s hand is
no longer necessary, only his idea, it’s a short leap to market the
concept that beauty is not only no longer essential, it can even be
turned into a dirty, elitist’ word.”

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Duchamp’s mystery

September 19, 2008

” He is famous. No doubt about it. He led the artists of his time to one of the greatest revolutions of all. He changed the whole idea of art, of what it is. And yet, was he actually laughing at his private joke? Laughing at those who followed him, believing they were following a new belief. Laughing that he had us all fooled, us who took his word. If it is true that it was all a lie, Would it make a difference? “

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