Marcel Duchamp

One of the most controversial and enigmatic artists of the twentieth century, Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968) fundamentally altered our way of looking at and understanding art. Associated in his early years with several avant-garde groups, notably the Cubists and Surrealists, Duchamp became most famous as the archetypal artist of the radical Dada movement. Duchamp's art illustrates his conviction that painting, as it had been previously understood, was mere representation; it was Duchamp's goal to turn painting into a purely intellectual tool, to make art that was, in his words, "aesthetically anaesthetized.". Duchamp's attempts to transform people's ideas about art were not readily accepted, and often created huge scandals. At the exhibition of the New York Independents in 1917, he presented his now famous overturned urinal, which he signed and titled Fountain. Indifferent to ideas of "good" or "bad" taste, Duchamp continued to make his artworks (called "Readymades") from innocuous objects which he "assisted" and "adjusted" in order to activate hidden meanings. Living in Paris and New York, Marcel Duchamp had a profound influence on artists in both Europe and America - he counted as friends, among others, Guillaume Apollinaire, Francis Picabia, and Andre Breton, and worked on several films with Man Ray and Hans Richter. In 1955 Duchamp became a citizen of the United States, where he continued to influence all aspects of the contemporary art scene until his death in 1968. This survey of Duchamp's career documents the artist's unusual achievement with more than 60 reproductions of his work and an informative text discussing his preeminent role in the history of twentieth-century art.

"This book chronicles the friendship and working relationship between Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968) and Joseph Cornell (1903-1972), two of the twentieth century's most innovative and influential artists. Joseph Cornell/Marcel Duchamp...in resonance publishes for the first time the Duchamp Dossier (c. 1942-53) - a hitherto publicly unknown collection compiled by Cornell and discovered in the artist's estate following his death in 1972. The small objects, typed and handwritten notes, and ephemera found within the Duchamp Dossier provide an absorbing record of the interchange between these two artists, which included Cornell's assisting Duchamp on the assembly of his edition de ou par Marcel Duchamp ou Rrose Selavy (commonly referred to as the Boite-en-valise)." "Both artists were intrigued by the connection between art and the found object, and they shared a fascination with replicated images and the processes of reproduction. They had parallel interests in optical devices, ephemeral mediums (such as glass, dust, and paper), filmmaking, and graphic design. The book focuses in depth on Duchamp's box editions and Cornell's often neglected "explorations," arranged files of printed matter, notes, and ephemera related to individuals or specific themes."--BOOK JACKET.