Marcel Duchamp

Biography

Duchamp's entire body of work is marked by ingenious re-use of elements drawn from popular visual culture. It is then nothing less than logical when once emerging from the shadows into celebrity, he subjects his own oeuvre to the 'appropriation artist' treatment, avant la lettre to be sure. In order to set himself apart from the mass production and distribution of images, he calls upon a most venerable method of circulating art, like here with suites of etchings after the Large Glass and quotations from the great art that had inspired him. For those suspecting him of wanting to turn the clock back, he etches – really 'not done' – a few plays-on-words as illustrations for poems of friends. To the end he remains consistently unorthodox and elusive. He's like a 19th-century dandy – detached, serene, discrete, laconic, with an inclination for solipsism and with paradox as his side-arm. Convinced of the limitless freedom of the individual, averse to all prejudice and loathful of all routine, he emerges as a one-man avant-garde among the successive art movements.

The power of attraction of Duchamp's work and his influence on all artists after him rest on his particular talent to attain maximum results with a minimum of means. It may seem something of a simplification, but the artist who brought humour into great art once indeed began as a creator of caricatures. And it's a verity that the good caricature has to drive the nail home. From these early drawings there runs a sparse and effective line to the readymade erotic pot-holders and so-many other disturbing interventions, here brought together for your visual and intellectual delight.

Exhibitions

Available Works

The large glass, 1965
Couple of Laundress’s Aprons, 1959/1960
De ou par Marcel Duchamp ou Rrose Sélavy (Boîte-en-valise) [Series B], 1952'
LE SURREALISME EN 1947, 1947
La Mariée mise à nu par ses célibataires même (Boîte verte, 1934

Bibliography

Selected exhibitions
2022	'I Can Live Forever', Gallery Sofie Van de Velde, New South, Antwerpen, BE 'Marcel Duchamp: L.H.O.O.Q.', Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg, AT
2021	'Please Touch: Marcel Duchamp and the Fetish', cur. Paul B. Franklin, Thaddaeus Ropac, London, UK; Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris Marais, FR
2020	'Hanging for 20 years of the Prix Marcel Duchamp 2020', Centre Pompidou, Paris, FR 'Marcel Duchamp: The Barbara and Aaron Levine Collection', Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C., USA 'Marcel Duchamp - baptism, Kunsthalle Marcel Duchamp', The Forestay Museum of Art, Cully, CH 'DUCHAMP THREADS THE NEEDLE', David Nolan Gallery, New York, NY, USA 'Marcel Duchamp und der Jura', Musée de l'Hôtel-Dieu, Porrentruy, CH
2019	'MARCEL DUCHAMP: Das Unmögliche sehen', Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Stuttgart; Staatliches Museum Schwerin, Schwerin, DE
2018	'Marcel Duchamp. 100 Fragen. 100 Antworten', Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Stuttgart, DE 'The Essential Duchamp,' Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo, JP; National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, SK; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, AU
2017	'Curatorial Studies 12: The 100th Anniversary of Duchamp's Fountain', National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, JP
2016	'Porte-Bouteilles', Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris, FR 'MARCEL DUCHAMP. Dada e Neo-Dada', Museo Comunale d'Arte Moderna, Ascona, CH 'The Slope of a Line – 100 Jahre Readymade', Daimler Contemporary, Berlin, DE
2015	'The Duchamp Effect', Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA, USA
2014	'Marcel Duchamp', MMCA Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki, GR 'What Marcel Duchamp Taught Me', The Fine Art Society, London, UK 'Marcel Duchamp – La Peinture Même', Centre Pompidou, Paris, FR
2013	'Rural Readymade', University of Lethbridge Art Gallery, Lethbridge, CN 'Duchamp: Re-Made in Italy', Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna, Rome, IT 'DUCHAMP and/or/in CHINA', UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, CH 'Surrealism & Duchamp', Moderna Museet, Stockholm, SW 'Marcel Duchamp', Palazzo Grassi, Venice, IT
2012	'Marcel Duchamp in Munich 1912,' Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich; Kunstbau, Munich, DE 'Marcel Duchamp', Hood Museum of Art, Hanover, NH, USA 'Duchamp the Messenger', MAK Center for Art and Architecture, Los Angeles, CA, USA 'Marcel Duchamp: Le mystère de Munich', Architecture Museum of TU, Munich, DE 'Marcel Duchamp – A Game in A Game', Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg, DE
2011	'Focus Gallery: Marcel Duchamp', Miami Art Museum, Miami, FL, USA 'Lost and Found', Lubeznik Center for the Arts, Michigan City, MI, USA 'Marcel Duchamp', Moderna Museet Malmö, Malmö, SW 'Marcel Duchamp, Belle Haleine: Eau de Voilette', Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin, DE
2009	'Marcel Duchamp: Chess Master', Saint Louis University Museum of Art, St. Louis, MO, 'USA 'Marcel Duchamp: Étant donnés', Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA, USA 'Frank Hesse. De ou par Marcel Duchamp', Stiftung Kunstfonds, Bonn, DE 'Inventing Marcel Duchamp: The Dynamics of Portraiture', National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., USA
2008	'Marcel Duchamp Redux', Norton Simon Museum of Art, Pasadena, CA, USA 'Marcel Duchamp: Una obra que no es una obra de arte', Fundacion PROA, Buenos Aires, Argentina 'Marcel Duchamp: A work is not a work of art', Museu de Arte Moderna, São Paulo, Brazil
2007	'Marcel, Marcel', Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KT, USA 'Spinning Straw', Masterworks Gallery, Auckland, NZ
2006	'Marcel Duchamp', Museo di Villa Croce, Genoa, IT
2004	'Mirrorical Returns: Marcel Duchamp and the 20th Century Art', National Museum of Art, Osaka; Yokohama Museum of Art, Yokohama, JP
2003	'Marcel Duchamp – Druckgraphik', Sammlung Hummel, Vienna, AT
2002	'Marcel Duchamp', Museum Jean Tinguely, Basel, CH 'Marcel Duchamp', Hessisches Landesmuseum, Darmstadt, DE
2001	'MARCEL DUCHAMP: ARTIST–HUMORIST–PHILOSOPHER', California State University, University Art Gallery, Long Beach, CA, USA '9 Objects: A Tribute to Marcel Duchamp', Hollywood Centre, HK 'Leading Lights of the 20th Century. Marcel Duchamp, Seen by Adrián Alemán and José Jiménez', Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona, Barcelona, SP
1995	'Marcel Duchamp, Respirateur', Staatliches Museum Schwerin, Schwerin, DE
1986	Marcel Duchamp, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
1985	Marcel Duchamp's Notes, Fine Arts Gallery, School of Visual Arts, Florida State University, Miami, FL, USA
1994	'Marcel Duchamp. To and From the Large Glass', Genia Schreiber University Art Gallery, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
1993	'Marcel Duchamp', Palazzo Grassi, Venice, IT
1991	'Marcel Duchamp. Graphics', Bigi Art Space, Kyoto, JP
1988	'Übrigens sterben immer die anderen: Marcel Duchamp', Museum Ludwig, Cologne, DE 'Marcel Duchamp, 'Fountain'', Menil Foundation, Houston, TX, USA 'Marcel Duchamp, la Sposa…e i Readymade', Accademia di Belle Arti di Bretra, Milan, IT
1987	'Marcel Duchamp. Das grafische Werk', Kunstmuseum Winterthur, Winterthur, CH 'Marcel Duchamp. Readymades. Estampes. Répliques', Genia Schreier University Art Gallery, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, IS 'Marcel Duchamp: 19a. Bienal Internacional de São Paulo', São Paulo, BR 'Marcel Duchamp als Zeitmaschine', Museum Hedendaagse Kunst, Utrecht, NL 'Apropos of Marcel Duchamp 1887/1987', Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA, USA
1984	Duchamp, Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona; Caja de Pensiones, Madrid, ES Marcel Duchamp. Works from the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, FL, USA
1982	Marcel Duchamp. La Pendule de Profile, Musée Sainte-Croix, Poitiers, France
1981	Marcel Duchamp, Seibu Takanawa, Karuizawa; Seibu Bijutsukan, Tokyo, Japan
1977	Marcel Duchamp, Centre Pompidou, Paris, FR
1975	The 'Large Glass' and Related Works, Taylor Hall Art Gallery, California State University, Chico, CA, USA
1974	Marcel Duchamp. A Retrospective Exhibition, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA; Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
1973	La Delicata Scacchiera. Marcel Duchamp, Palazzo Reale, Naples, Italy
1972	Marcel Duchamp. Drawings and Etchings for the 'Large Glass', Readymades, Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel
1966	The Almost Complete Works of Marcel Duchamp, Tate Gallery, London, UK
1964	Marcel Duchamp, Museum Haus Lange, Krefeld, DE
1963	Marcel Duchamp. A Retrospective Exhibition, Pasadena Art Museum, Pasadena, CA, USA
1960	Marcel Duchamp, Bokkonsu, Stockholm, SE Dokumentation über Marcel Duchamp, Kunstgewerbemuseum, Zürich, CH
1959	Sur Marcel Duchamp, Institute of Contemporary Art, London, UK
1952	Marcel Duchamp, Amici della Francia, Milan, Italy
1937	Exhibition of Paintings by Marcel Duchamp, Arts Club of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
	Selected public collections
	France Centre Pompidou, Paris Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris, Paris Israel Israel Museum, Jerusalem UK Tate, London USA Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL Menil Collection, Houston, TX The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA

Marcel Duchamp 1887-1968

Artist portfolios

Marcel Duchamp

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