Duchampian News & Views
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Original Copies: ‘The Art of Appropriation’ at MoMA
September 12, 2008“Nearby, Duchamp’s “L.H.O.O.Q. Shaved” (1965) consists simply of a playing-card image of the “Mona Lisa” mounted on a sheet signed by the artist. The artist has left this portrait mustache-less, unlike his infamous “L.H.O.O.Q.” of nearly a half-century before.” Exhibition until November 10 2008
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Chess from Duchamp to Damien Hirst
September 12, 2008“In 1927, Marcel Duchamp…married a young heiress called Lydie Sarazin-Lavassor. The honeymoon did not go well. “Duchamp spent most of the week studying chess problems,” recalled the artist’s close friend Man Ray, “and his bride, in desperate retaliation, got up one night when he was asleep and glued the chess pieces to the board.”
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(Re)make it new
September 12, 2008 "Johnson and Duchamp turned springs and shovels into art objects by renaming them, changing their context, casting them in new light. The shovel never changed–just the way we looked at it. ..Duchamp's shovel is still a shovel. John Gordon says that as a curator, he's ' looking for craftsmanship and intellectual engagement. This might be an object that appeals to me on a Christmas-gift level, but museologically I look for something more. It's hard to do good things that are .. read more... -
The genius of Duchamp?
September 12, 2008
Larry Evans on chess: Marcel Duchamp’s vexing problem“Many years ago [Francis] Neumann also submitted it to my column in Chess Life, offering a reward of $15 to anyone who either could solve it or prove there was no possible solution. ‘ I have since subjected this problem to the most powerful computers and I am now convinced that Duchamp has given us, in effect, a problem with no solution.'”
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Marcel Duchamp: Etant Donnes
September 12, 2008“This is the first exhibition to examine the genesis, construction, and reception of Etant donnes: 1° la chute d’eau, 2° le gaz d’eclairage (Given: 1° The Waterfall, 2° The Illuminating Gas), Marcel Duchamp’s enigmatic final masterwork that was secretly executed in New York during the last 20 years of his life and discovered in his studio soon after his death in October 1968. The exhibition will be on view from July 2009 to October 2009.”
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Duchamp & The Indifferent Field of Possibilities
September 12, 2008"This segment is from my documentary on Dada titled, "Random Acts of Beauty: The Story of Dada." this segment examines Duchamp’s interest in randomness and chance as compared to the Zurich Dadaists. It is a different take altogether."
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Duchamp & the Hatrack
September 12, 2008"This segment is from my documentary on the Dada movement titled, ‘Random Acts of Beauty: The Story of Dada.’ Here, Stephen C Foster talks about Duchampian mind-games used to determine what qualifies as art. "
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Ranking the greatest artworks of the twentieth century
September 12, 2008 "His [David Galenson] statistical approach has led to what he says is a radically new interpretation of 20th-century art, one he is certain art historians will hate. It is based in part on how frequently an illustration of a work appears in textbooks. 'Demoiselles' came in at No. 1 with 28 illustrations....Marcel Duchamp's 1917 'Fountain' — a white urinal — was seventh with 18 illustrations, and his 1912 painting 'Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2' was ei.. read more... -
Photo bomber “Art Interventionists”
September 12, 2008“Critics will say that photo bombing hardly constitutes ‘art intervention,’ which is the intentional meddling into a pre-existing piece of artwork or even an art venue, like a gallery or museum. (The performance artist who took a hammer to Marcel Duchamp’s famous urinal — titled ‘Fountain’ — in Paris in 2006 and called it his own ‘art’ is a good example of an art interventionist. Same goes for an artist who manages to sneak his work into a museum.)
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