Picasso (1881-1973) og Duchamp (1887-1968) var stort set samtidige. De levede begge længe og havde begge en stærk tilknytning til Paris og den europæiske modernisme - og de kaldes begge for "det 20. århundredes kunstner". Alligevel udviklede de sig til at blive næsten kunstneriske modpoler. Duchamps navn er velkendt og højt estimeret indenfor

The following essay is appearing for the first time in English. An Italian version appeared in the Catalogue for the 1993 Venice Biennale. The three-part fragmented format was due to my underestimating or misconstruing the publisher's desires regarding length. A little way into Part II of Goethe's Faust, a short, cacophonous scene transpires in

click to enlarge "Send Me a Kiss by Wireless", QST, May 1922, p. 54 (photo: Underwood & Underwood) This picture was reproduced in many newspapers across the country during the radio boom. The male radio amateurs reacted with new proposals for captations, like "See the Shaft - on the Variometer" Everything that we call electronic mass media

Introduction "You know, I like signing all those things - it devalues them," Duchamp confided to Richard Hamilton at the Pasadena Art Museum. (Tomkins 1965, p. 68.) A retrospective of his work had just opened (1963) and without reluctance Duchamp spent the morning signing papers, posters and other objects. His fame in America was greater than ever,

[An earlier version of this article was first published in German as "Duchamp Werden," in: CROSSINGS: Kunst zum Hören und Sehen, Vienna: Kunsthalle, 1998 (exh. cat.), p 55-61] "They did not speak. They did not sing, they remained, all of them, silent, almost determinedly silent; but from the empty air they conjured music. Everything was music..."

The following is part of a lecture, directly written in English, that was first given at the Conference of The College Art Association, Boston, MA, February 21-24, 1996. The lecture was presented in a session directed by Francis M. Naumann called "Marcel Duchamp and the Ready-made: From Origin to Consequence." The author is begging indulgence to th

I. Introduction: The Depth of Trifles and the Status of Puns The Duchampian pun that covered each piece of candy at the opening of Bill Copley's 1953 Parisian show might, in its richness and ambiguity of meaning, suggest Churchill's famous description of Soviet Russia as "a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma." (1) Ducha

click to enlarge It is currently impossible to gather in its entirety, indeed to reconstitute in its integrity, Marcel Duchamp's book collection. And maybe this will forever be the case, given that the man lived in small apartments or hotels for long periods of time, and that he moved a lot between two continents. Certainly, this precari

click to enlarge left:Duchamp as the Black King in Hans Richter's 8x8, 1957 right: Duchamp in 1957, wearing a crown made for his 70th birthday (photographyby Denise Hare) click to enlarge left:Figure 1. Salvador Dalí, Apotheosis of the Dollar, 1965 right: Figure 2. First known image of Clovis I and the miracle of t

click to enlarge Figure 1. Marcel Duchamp's masterpiece is The Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors, Even (The Large Glass), 1915-1923 (Figure 1). With his notes, which the artist stated were part of the piece, it stands as the most influential artwork of our century. Duchamp said that the two plate-glass panels which hold the work were acciden