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Marcel Duchamp et la littérature

Nullement complète et, sur plus d’un plan, éminemment perfectible, cette bibliographie vise néanmoins à offrir un premier rassemblement de noms d’écrivains et de titres d’oeuvres littéraires qui sont en rapport direct ou indirect, les uns et les autres, avec l’oeuvre ou la personne de Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968).

Afin de bien voir arriver les choses, dans chacune des quatre sections, les entrées sont classées chronologiquement. Si le livre est repris ou directement publié en édition de poche (coll. ” Le livre de poche “, coll. ” 10 / 18 “, coll. ” J’ai lu “, coll. ” Poésie / Gallimard “, coll. ” Folio “, coll. ” L’imaginaire “, coll. ” Babel “), cela est indiqué. Si le livre est traduit en totalité ou en partie en anglais ou en français, cela est également indiqué.

Les quatre sections sont les suivantes:
1. Ceux qui ont publié
a. au moins un livre, un chapitre de livre ou un article sur Marcel Duchamp ou une entrevue de lui (dans tous les cas, la date de publication est entre [ ] avant le nom);
b. au moins une oeuvre littéraire (roman, recueil de nouvelles, recueil de poèmes, pièce);
2. Those who have published a literary work (novel, short story, play, etc.) which was “inspired” or “partially inspired” by the work of Marcel Duchamp or Duchamp himself.
3. Ceux qui ont publié une oeuvre littéraire (roman, nouvelle, poème, etc.) ” en hommage ” ou partiellement ” en hommage ” à la personne ou à l’oeuvre de Marcel Duchamp;
4. Oeuvres littéraires ” illustrées ” par Marcel Duchamp, seul ou en collaboration, ou par Marcel Duchamp et un autre artiste.

La reconnaissance d’une oeuvre, puis de quelques oeuvres, puis de ce qu’il est convenu d’appeler l’oeuvre de Marcel Duchamp commençant vraiment en 1913 – reconnaissance américaine côté public (Armory Show, 1913), reconnaissance française côté critique (Apollinaire, 1913) -, il semble bien qu’elle se soit plus développée du côté anglophone, même si les rapports entre l’art et la littérature, comme on le constatera, auront été nettement plus constants, voire consistants, du côté francophone. Nulle relation de cause à effet, ici, mais un simple constat: bien des gens qui ont écrit ou écriront sur Marcel Duchamp ont écrit ou écriront aussi (en français le plus souvent) des textes littéraires.

André Gervais Janvier 2000

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1. Ceux qui ont publié
a. aau moins un livre, un chapitre de livre ou un article sur Marcel Duchamp ou une entrevue de lui (dans tous les cas, la date de publication est entre [ ] avant le nom);
b. au moins une oeuvre littéraire (roman, recueil de nouvelles, recueil de poèmes, pièce)
N.B. Pour les écrivains qui ont publié un grand nombre d’oeuvres littéraires, nous ne donnons qu’un choix volontairement limité à 4 titres.

[1913, Chapter] Guillaume Apollinaire, pseud. de Wilhem Apollinaire de Kostrowitzky (1880-1918)

L’enchanteur pourrissant [récit en prose entrecoupé de poèmes]. avec 10 bois d’André Derain, Paris, Henry Kahnweiler éditeur, 1909.
Alcools, poèmes 1898-1913, avec un portrait par Pablo Picasso, Paris, Mercure de France, 1913; Paris, Gallimard, coll. ” Poésie / Gallimard “; Alcools. translated by Anne Hyde Greet, with a foreword by Warren Ramsey, Berkeley, University of California Press, 1965; Alcools, translated by Donald Revell, Hanover, University Press of New England for Wesleyan University Press, 1995.
Le poète assassiné, contes, avec un portrait par André Rouveyre, Paris, Bibliothèque des curieux, 1916; Paris, Gallimard, coll. “Poésie / Gallimard”; The Poet Assassinated, translated with a biographical notice and notes by Matthew Josephson, New York, The Broom Pub. Co., 1923; The Poet Assassinated, translated by Ron Padgett, illustrated by Jim Dine, New York, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1968.
Calligrammes, poèmes de la paix et de la guerre 1913-1916, avec un portrait par Pablo Picasso, Paris, Mercure de France, 1918; Paris, Gallimard, coll. “Poésie / Gallimard “;Calligrammes, poems of peace and war (1913-1916), translated by Anne Hyde Greet, with an introduction by S. I. Lockerbie and commentary by Anne Hyde Greet and S. I. Lockerbie, Berkeley, University of California Press, 1980.

[1917, Article-entrevue] Mina Loy, pseud. de Mina Lowy (1882-1966)

Lunar Baedecker [sic], Paris, Contact Publishing Company, 1923; Lunar Baedeker & Time-tables. Highlands, NC: Jonathan Williams, 1958; The Last Lunar Baedeker, edited and introduced by Roger L. Conover, Highlands, The Jargon Society, 1982; The Lost Lunar Baedeker, definitive edition, edited and introduced by Roger L. Conover, New York, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1996.

[1917, Article]Louise Varèse, née Louise McCutcheon (1890-1988)

St.-John Perse. Éloges, and other poems, French text with English translation by Louise Varèse and introduction by Archibald MacLeish, New York, W.W. Norton & Co, 1944.
Charles Baudelaire. Paris Spleen, translated by Louise Varèse, New York, New Directions, 1947.
Marcel Proust. Pleasures and Regrets, translated by Louise Varèse, with a preface by Anatole France, New York, Crown Publishers, 1948.
Varèse: A Looking-Glass Diary, Volume 1, 1883-1928; New York, W.W. Norton & Co, 1972.

[1922, Article] André Breton (1896-1966)

Nadja [1928], [récit], édition entièrement revue par l’auteur, Paris, Gallimard, 1963; coll. “Folio”; Nadja, translated by Richard Howard, New York, Grove Press, and London, Evergreen Books, Ltd., 1960.
Arcane 17 [1944, avec 4 lames de tarot en couleurs par Matta] enté d’Ajours, avec 3 eaux-fortes par Baskine, Paris, Éd. du Sagittaire, 1947; coll. “10 / 18 “; Arcanum 17 : With Apertures : Grafted to the End,tTranslated by Zack Rogow and with an introduction by Anna Balakian, Toronto: Coach House Press, 1994.
Clair de terre⁽¹⁾, poèmes, préface d’Alain Jouffroy, Paris, Gallimard, coll. ” Poésie / Gallimard “, 1966.
Signe ascendant⁽²⁾, poèmes, Paris, Gallimard, coll. ” Poésie / Gallimard “, 1966.

[1924, Preface] Gertrude Stein (1874-1946)

Geography and Plays, Boston, The Four Seas Company, 1922.
The Making of Americans, Being a History of a Family’s Progress , novel, Paris, Contact Editions, 1925; Américains d’Amérique, histoire d’une famille américaine, traduction de la baronne J. Seillère et de Bernard Faÿ, Paris, Stock, Delamain et Boutelleau, 1933.
The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, London, John Lane, The Bodley Head, 1933;Autobiographie d’Alice Toklas, traduction de Bernard Faÿ, Paris, Gallimard, 1934.
Everybody’s Autobiography, New York, Random House, 1937; Autobiographies, traduction de la baronne d’Aiguy [May Tagnard], Paris, Éd. Confluences, 1945.

[1924, Book]

Pierre de Massot (1900-1969)
Prolégomènes à une éthique sans métaphysique ou Billy, bull-dog et philosophe [essay]. Paris: Éditions de la Montagne, 1930.
Mon corps, ce doux démon [written 1932] [autobiography]. Letter-preface by André Gide, with an engraved portrait by Jacques Villon, s.l.n.d. [Alès: PAB, 1959].
Le mystère des maux [poems]. With a drawing by Francis Picabia. Paris: hors commerce [Imprimerie René Martinet et Cie], 1961.⁽³⁾
Le déserteur. Oeuvre poétique 1923-1969, texts collected and presented by Gérard Pfister, Paris, Arfuyen, 1992.⁽⁴⁾

[1936, article] Michel Leiris

L’âge d’homme [écrit en 1930-1935, publié en 1939], précédé de De la littérature considérée comme une tauromachie [1946], [première autobiographie], Paris, Gallimard, 1946; Paris, Gallimard, coll. “Folio”; Manhood : a journey from childhood into the fierce order of virility, preceded by The autobiographer as torero, translated by Richard Howard, New York, Grossman Publishers, 1963.
La règle du jeu. Tome I: Biffures, Tome II: Fourbis, Tome III: Fibrilles et Tome IV: Frêle bruit, [seconde autobiographie], Paris, Gallimard, respectivement 1948, 1955, 1966 et 1976: les 4 tomes, coll. “L’imaginaire”; Rules of the game : Scratches [Biffures], translated by Lydia Davis, New York, Paragon House, 1991 [Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University, 1997]; Scraps [Fourbis], translated by Lydia Davis, Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University, 1997.
Mots sans mémoire ⁽⁵⁾, [poésie], Paris, Gallimard, 1969.
Journal 1922-1989, édition établie, présentée et annotée par Jean Jamin, Paris, Gallimard, 1992.

[1937, article] Roger Caillois (1913-1978)

Art poétique, Paris, Gallimard, 1958.
Esthétique généralisée, Paris, Gallimard, 1962.
Pierres, Paris, Gallimard, 1966.
Obliques [1967] précédé de Images, images… [1966], Paris, Gallimard, coll. ” Le monde ouvert “, 1974.

[1938, article-entrevue; 1959, livre] Robert Lebel (1901-1986)

Masque à lame, illustré par Isabelle Waldberg, New York, Éd. Hémisphères, 1943.
L’oiseau caramel,, illustré par Max Ernst, Paris, le Soleil noir, 1969.
Traité des passions par personne interposée, Paris, Losfeld, 1972.
La Saint-Charlemagne, illustré par Max Ernst, Paris, le Soleil noir, 1976.

[1945, article] Man Ray, pseud. d’Emmanuel Radnitsky (1890-1976)

Self portrait [commencé en 1951, publié en 1963], [autobiographie], foreword by Merry A. Foresta, afterword by Juliet Man Ray, Boston, Little, Brown & Co. and the New York Graphic Society, 1988; trad. fr. d’Anne Guérin, Paris, Laffont, 1964; Arles, Actes Sud, coll. ” Babel “.
Ce que je suis et autres textes, présentation de Vincent Lavoie, Paris, Hoëbeke, coll. “Arts & esthétique”, 1998.

[1945, article] Nicolas Calas (ou Nikolas Kalas), pseud. de Nikos Kalamares (1907-…)

Odos Niketa Randou [Rue Nikita Randou], poèmes, Athènes, Ikaros, 1977.

[1949, article] Gaston Puel (1924-)

Paysage nuptial, frontispice de Hans Bellmer, Paris, GLM, 1947.
La jamais rencontrée, frontispice de Max Ernst, Paris, Seghers, 1950.
Ce chant entre deux astres, collage de Jean Arp en double frontispice, Lyon, Henneuse éd., 1956.
Le cinquième château, avec deux bois originaux de Raoul Ubac, Veilhes, la Fenêtre ardente, 1965.

[1950, article; 1974, livre] Jean Suquet (1928-)

Jamais rien ni personne, roman, augmenté d’une gravure effacée par le temps, Paris, le Parler de la lune aphasique, 1958.
Une chimie greffée de chimères, Paris, le Parler de la lune aphasique, 1972.
Oubli sablier intarissable⁽⁶⁾, n° spécial de la revue Liard, Bordeaux, 1996.

[1952, article; 1954, chapitre] Michel Carrouges, pseud. de Louis Couturier (1910-1988)

Les portes dauphines, roman, Paris, Gallimard, 1954.
Les grands-pères prodiges, roman, Paris, Plon, 1957.

[1953, article] Henri Pierre Roché (1879-1959)

Jean Roc, pseud. d’Henri Pierre Roché, Don Juan et…, [récit], Paris, Éd. de la Sirène, 1921; Marseille, André Dimanche Éditeur, 1993.
Jules et Jim, roman, Paris, Gallimard, 1953; coll. ” Folio “; Jules and Jim, translated by Patrick Evans, London and Boston, M. Boyars, 1963.
Deux Anglaises et le continent, roman, Paris, Gallimard, 1956.
Carnets. Les années Jules et Jim, première partie 1920-1921, avant-propos de François Truffaut, Marseille, André Dimanche Éditeur, 1990.

[1954, article-entrevue] Alain Jouffroy (1928-)

Un rêve plus long que la nuit, roman, Paris, Gallimard, 1964; coll. ” Folio “.
Trajectoire, récit-récitatif, Paris, Gallimard, 1968.
Liberté des libertés, illustré par Joan Miró et Valerio Adami, Paris, le Soleil noir, 1971.
L’ouverture de l’être 1947-1962, poèmes, préface par Sarane Alexandrian, Paris, Éd. de la Différence, coll. ” Littérature “, 1983.

[1957, article-entrevue] Jean Schuster (1929-1995)

Les moutons, Paris, Éd. le Récipiendaire, 1978.
Les fruits de la passion, Paris, l’Instant, coll. “Griffures “, 1988.
T’as vu ça d’ta f’nêtre suivi d’une Lettre à André Liberati contre les acolytes de Dieu et les Judas de l’athéisme, Levallois-Perret, Manya, 1990.
Le ramasse-miettes suivi d’une Lettre différée à Philippe Soupault, Saucats, Opales, 1991.

[1959, article] Salvador Dali (1904-1989)

La vie secrète de Salvador Dali, adaptation française de Michel Déon, Paris, Éd. de la Table ronde, coll. ” Les vies perpendiculaires “, 1952; Paris, Gallimard, coll. ” Idées “.

[1963, article] John Cage (1912-1992)

Silence, lectures and writings; A year from Monday, new lectures and writings; M, writings, ’67-’72; Empty Words, writings, ’73-’78; X, writings, ’79-’82; Middletown (Conn.), Wesleyan University Press, respectivement 1961, 1967, 1973, 1979 et 1983; Silence, discours et écrits, traduction de Monique Fong, Paris, Denoël, 1970.
Pour les oiseaux, entretiens avec Daniel Charles, Paris, Belfond, 1976; For the birds, Boston, M. Boyards, 1981.

[1964, chapitre; 1967, livre] Arturo Schwarz (1924-)

Choix de poèmes [en français], Paris, Seghers, 1956.
Il Reale Assoluto, poèmes [en italien], avec onze lithographies de Marcel Duchamp et de Man Ray, Milan, Galleria Schwarz, 1964.
Per Vera, poèmes [en italien], avec un portrait de Vera par Franco Francese, Milan, Penna di Pollo Editore, 1984.
A coat made of wind, poèmes [en anglais], illustré par Ofer Lellouche avec une gravure, Tel-Aviv, The Genia Shreiber University Art Gallery, Tel Aviv University, 1994.

[1968, article] Denis de Rougemont (1906-1985)

L’amour et l’occident, essai [1939], édition remaniée, Paris, Plon, 1956; Paris, UGÉ, coll. ” 10 / 18 “; Love in the western world, revised and augmented edition, translated by Montgomery Belgion, New York, Pantheon, 1956 [the other title of this translation isPassion and society, London, Faber and Faber, 1956].
La part du diable [fin 1942], nouvelle version, Neuchâtel, la Baconnière, 1945; The devil’s share, an essay on the diabolic in modern society, translated by Haakon M. Chevalier, New York, Meridian Books, 1956.
Lettres sur la bombe atomique, Paris, Gallimard, 1946.
Journal d’une époque 1926-1946, Paris, Gallimard, 1968 [édition révisée de Journal des deux mondes, 1947].

[1968, livre] Octavio Paz (1914-1998)

Liberté sur parole [Libertad bajo palabra, 1949; traduction publiée en 1966] suivi deCondition de nuage, Aigle ou soleil [Aguila o sol?, 1951], À la limite du monde [A la orilla del mundo, 1942] et Pierre de soleil [Piedra de sol, 1957; traduction publiée en 1962], poèmes traduits de l’espagnol par Jean-Clarence Lambert (et revus par l’auteur) et Benjamin Péret, Paris, Gallimard, coll. ” Poésie / Gallimard “, 1971.
Versant Est [Ladera Este (1962-1968), 1970] et autres poèmes 1960-1968, poèmes traduits de l’espagnol par Yesé Amory, Claude Esteban, Carmen Figueroa, Roger Munier et Jacques Roubaud, Paris, Gallimard, 1970; coll. ” Poésie / Gallimard “.
The collected poems of Octavio Paz, 1957-1987, edited and translated by Eliot Weinberger, with additional translations by Elizabeth Bishop et al., New York, New Directions, 1987.
Le singe grammairien, traduit de l’espagnol par Claude Esteban, Genève, Skira, coll. ” Les sentiers de la création “, 1972; The monkey grammarian, translated by Helen R. Lane, New York, Seaver Books, 1981.

[1969, article] Bernard Teyssèdre (1930-)

Romans-éclairs, Paris, Grasset, 1961.
Foi de fol, récit drôlatique enchevêtré de plagiats et d’exemples, Paris, Gallimard, coll. ” Le chemin “, 1968.
Le roman de l’Origine, Paris, Gallimard, coll. ” L’Infini “, 1996.

[1971, article] José Pierre (1927-1998 ?)

Qu’est-ce que Thérèse? C’est les marronniers en fleurs, roman, Paris, le Soleil noir, 1974; coll. ” J’ai lu. Pour lecteurs avertis “.
La charité commence par un baiser, Paris, Galilée, coll. ” Ligne fictive “, 1980.
Les barreaux du coeur, roman, Paris, Mercure de France, coll. ” Le Mercure galant “, 1986.
La fontaine close. Les livres secrets d’une secte gnostique inconnue, Paris, l’Instant, coll. ” Griffures “, 1988.

[1972, article] Marcelin Pleynet (1933-)

Stanze. Incantation dite au bandeau d’or, Paris, Seuil, coll. ” Tel quel “, 1973.
Rime, Paris, Seuil, coll. ” Tel quel “, 1981.
Le jour et l’heure, journal, Paris, Plon, coll. ” Carnets “, 1988.
La vie à deux ou trois, roman, Paris, Gallimard, 1992.

[1973, article] David Antin (1932-)

Selected Poems 1963-1973, Los Angeles, Sun & Moon Press, coll. ” Sun & Moon classics “, 1991; Poèmes parlés, traduction de Jacques Darras et al., préface de Jacques Darras, Saint-Pierre-du-Mont, les Cahiers des brisants, coll. ” les Cahiers de Royaumont “, 1984.
Meditations, Los Angeles, Black Sparrow Press, 1971.
After the War, a long novel with few words, Los Angeles, Black Sparrow Press, 1973.
Talking at the boundaries, New York, New Directions, 1976.

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2. Ceux qui ont publié une oeuvre littéraire (roman, nouvelle, pièce, etc.) qui est ” inspirée ” ou partiellement ” inspirée ” par l’oeuvre ou la personne de Marcel Duchamp
N.B. Les noms précédés d’un astérisque sont déjà dans la section 1

Elmer Ernest Southard (1876-1920)

” Mlle de l’escalier ” [novelette, dictée le 17 novembre 1916], dans Frederick P. Gay, The Open Mind. Elmer Ernest Southard 1876-1920, Chicago, Normandie House, 1938.

Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven, dite The Baroness, née Elsa Hildegard Ploetz (1874-1927)

” Portrait de Marcel Duchamp “, The Little Review, New York, vol. 9, n° 2, hiver 1922.

Henrie Waste, pseud. d’Henrietta, dite Ettie, Stettheimer (1874-1955)

Love Days [Susanna Moore’s], novel [écrit de 1919 (?) à 1922], New York, Alfred A. Knopf, [août] 1923.
” Pensée-Cadeau: vers à un ami ” [poème, été 1922], dans View, New York, série 5, n° 1, mars 1945.

[1974, article] Bernard Pingaud (1923-)

La voix de son maître, Paris, Gallimard, 1973.
La scène primitive, Paris, Gallimard, 1984; coll. ” L’imaginaire “.
Adieu Kafka, roman, Paris, Gallimard, 1989.
Bartoldi le comédien, roman, Paris, Seuil, 1996.

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Elmer Ernest Southard (1876-1920)

” Mlle de l’escalier ” [novelette, dictée le 17 novembre 1916], dans Frederick P. Gay, The Open Mind. Elmer Ernest Southard 1876-1920, Chicago, Normandie House, 1938.

Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven, dite The Baroness, née Elsa Hildegard Ploetz (1874-1927)

” Portrait de Marcel Duchamp “, The Little Review, New York, vol. 9, n° 2, hiver 1922.

Henrie Waste, pseud. d’Henrietta, dite Ettie, Stettheimer (1874-1955)

[1974, article] Jean-Clarence Lambert (1930-)

Les armes parlantes. Pratique de la poésie, Paris, Belfond, 1976.
Idylles précédé de Féminaire, dessins de Corneille, Paris, Galilée, coll. ” Écritures, figures “, 1985.
Poésie en jeu 1953-1973, Paris, Galilée, coll. ” Écritures, figures “, 1986.
Le jardin le labyrinthe 1953-1989, poèmes, prologue d’Octavio Paz, Paris, Éd. de la Différence, coll. ” Littérature “, 1991.[1974, article] Gilbert Lascault (1934-)
Enfances choisies, Paris, Bourgois, 1976.
Encyclopédie abrégée de l’Empire vert, Paris, Maurice Nadeau: Papyrus, coll. ” Lettres nouvelles “, 1983.
Éloges à Geneviève, Paris, Balland, 1985.
Les amours d’Arthur-Toujours-Là et de Monika-Belle-de-Givre, mies de pain de Pétra Werlé, Strasbourg, Baby Lone, coll. ” L’île sonnante “, 1986.

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Elmer Ernest Southard (1876-1920)

” Mlle de l’escalier ” [novelette, dictée le 17 novembre 1916], dans Frederick P. Gay, The Open Mind. Elmer Ernest Southard 1876-1920, Chicago, Normandie House, 1938.

Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven, dite The Baroness, née Elsa Hildegard Ploetz (1874-1927)

” Portrait de Marcel Duchamp “, The Little Review, New York, vol. 9, n° 2, hiver 1922.

Henrie Waste, pseud. d’Henrietta, dite Ettie, Stettheimer (1874-1955)

[1975, article] Michel Butor (1926-)

La modification, roman, Paris, Minuit, 1957; coll. ” 10 / 18 “.
Mobile, étude pour une représentation des États-Unis, Paris, Gallimard, 1962; Mobile, study for a representation of the United States, translated by Richard Howard, New York, Simon and Schuster, 1963.
Matière de rêves, Matière de rêves II. Second sous-sol, Matière de rêves III. Troisième dessous et Matière de rêves IV. Quadruple fond, Paris, Gallimard, coll. ” Le chemin “, respectivement 1975, 1976, 1977, 1981.
Envois et Exprès. (Envois 2), poèmes, Paris, Gallimard, coll. ” Le chemin “, 1980 et 1983.

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Elmer Ernest Southard (1876-1920)

” Mlle de l’escalier ” [novelette, dictée le 17 novembre 1916], dans Frederick P. Gay, The Open Mind. Elmer Ernest Southard 1876-1920, Chicago, Normandie House, 1938.

Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven, dite The Baroness, née Elsa Hildegard Ploetz (1874-1927)

” Portrait de Marcel Duchamp “, The Little Review, New York, vol. 9, n° 2, hiver 1922.

Henrie Waste, pseud. d’Henrietta, dite Ettie, Stettheimer (1874-1955)

[1975, livre] Jean Clair, pseud. de Gérard Régnier (1940-)

Gérard Régnier, Les chemins détournés, roman, Paris, Gallimard, 1962.
Le voyageur égoïste, carnets de voyage 1978-1988, Paris, Plon, coll. ” Carnets “, 1989.
Onze chansons puériles, numérotées par Pierre Alechinsky (1927-), Caen, l’Échoppe, 1990.

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Elmer Ernest Southard (1876-1920)

” Mlle de l’escalier ” [novelette, dictée le 17 novembre 1916], dans Frederick P. Gay, The Open Mind. Elmer Ernest Southard 1876-1920, Chicago, Normandie House, 1938.

Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven, dite The Baroness, née Elsa Hildegard Ploetz (1874-1927)

” Portrait de Marcel Duchamp “, The Little Review, New York, vol. 9, n° 2, hiver 1922.

Henrie Waste, pseud. d’Henrietta, dite Ettie, Stettheimer (1874-1955)

[1976, livre] Sarane Alexandrian (1927-)

Le déconcerto, contes, Paris, Galilée, coll. ” Ligne fictive “, 1980.
L’aventure en soi, autobiographie, Paris, Mercure de France, 1990.
Le grand astrosophe, roman, Paris, Losfeld, 1994.

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Elmer Ernest Southard (1876-1920)

” Mlle de l’escalier ” [novelette, dictée le 17 novembre 1916], dans Frederick P. Gay, The Open Mind. Elmer Ernest Southard 1876-1920, Chicago, Normandie House, 1938.

Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven, dite The Baroness, née Elsa Hildegard Ploetz (1874-1927)

” Portrait de Marcel Duchamp “, The Little Review, New York, vol. 9, n° 2, hiver 1922.

Henrie Waste, pseud. d’Henrietta, dite Ettie, Stettheimer (1874-1955)

Récits tremblants, avec Jacques Monory (1934-), Paris, Galilée, 1977.
Le mur du Pacifique, récit, Paris, Galilée, coll. ” Ligne fictive “, 1979.
L’histoire de Ruth, avec Ruth Francken (1924-), Talence, le Castor astral, coll. ” Le mot et la forme “, 1983.

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Elmer Ernest Southard (1876-1920)

” Mlle de l’escalier ” [novelette, dictée le 17 novembre 1916], dans Frederick P. Gay, The Open Mind. Elmer Ernest Southard 1876-1920, Chicago, Normandie House, 1938.

Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven, dite The Baroness, née Elsa Hildegard Ploetz (1874-1927)

” Portrait de Marcel Duchamp “, The Little Review, New York, vol. 9, n° 2, hiver 1922.

Henrie Waste, pseud. d’Henrietta, dite Ettie, Stettheimer (1874-1955)

[1977, article; 1984, livre] André Gervais (1947-)

Trop plein pollen, poèmes, revue Les Herbes rouges, Montréal, n° 23, 1974.
Hom storm grom suivi de Pré prisme aire urgence, poèmes, Montréal, Éd. de l’Aurore, coll. ” Lecture en vélocipède “, 1975.
Du muscle astérisque, proses, revue La Nouvelle Barre du jour, Montréal, série ” Auteur / e “, n° 180, 1986.
La nuit se lève, poèmes et proses, avec un tableau de Bruno Santerre. Saint-Lambert, Éd. du Noroît, 1990.

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Elmer Ernest Southard (1876-1920)

” Mlle de l’escalier ” [novelette, dictée le 17 novembre 1916], dans Frederick P. Gay, The Open Mind. Elmer Ernest Southard 1876-1920, Chicago, Normandie House, 1938.

Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven, dite The Baroness, née Elsa Hildegard Ploetz (1874-1927)

” Portrait de Marcel Duchamp “, The Little Review, New York, vol. 9, n° 2, hiver 1922.

Henrie Waste, pseud. d’Henrietta, dite Ettie, Stettheimer (1874-1955)

[1984, article] Philippe Muray (1945-)

Chant pluriel, Paris, Gallimard, 1973.
Jubila, roman, Paris, Seuil, coll. ” Fiction et Cie “, 1976.
Postérité, roman, Paris, Grasset, 1988.
On ferme, roman, Paris, les Belles lettres, 1997.

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Elmer Ernest Southard (1876-1920)

” Mlle de l’escalier ” [novelette, dictée le 17 novembre 1916], dans Frederick P. Gay, The Open Mind. Elmer Ernest Southard 1876-1920, Chicago, Normandie House, 1938.

Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven, dite The Baroness, née Elsa Hildegard Ploetz (1874-1927)

” Portrait de Marcel Duchamp “, The Little Review, New York, vol. 9, n° 2, hiver 1922.

Henrie Waste, pseud. d’Henrietta, dite Ettie, Stettheimer (1874-1955)

Love Days [Susanna Moore’s], novel [écrit de 1919 (?) à 1922], New York, Alfred A. Knopf, [août] 1923.
” Pensée-Cadeau: vers à un ami ” [poème, été 1922], dans View, New York, série 5, n° 1, mars 1945.

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Cover of Littérature,
André Breton (ed.), N° 5, 1er October, 1922

Robert Desnos (1900-1945)

Rrose Sélavy, [aphorismes, octobre 1922-1923], partiellement dans Littérature, Paris, nouvelle série: n° 7, 1er décembre 1922; toujours partiellement (mais avec variantes) dans Corps et biens, Paris, Gallimard, 1930; coll. ” Poésie / Gallimard “.
L’aumonyme [novembre 1922-décembre 1923], dansCorps et biens, Paris, Gallimard, 1930; coll. ” Poésie / Gallimard “.
Francis Picabia (1879-1953)
Caravansérail, [roman écrit de juin 1923 à janvier 1924], Paris, Belfond, 1974.

Robert Lebel

[La double vue suivi de] L’inventeur du temps gratuit [conte écrit en 1943-1944, publié en revue en 1957], illustré par [Alberto Giacometti et] Marcel Duchamp, Paris, le Soleil noir, 1964; The inventor of gratuitous time, in The custom-house of desire : A half-century of surrealist stories, translated with an introduction by J. H. Matthews, Berkeley and Los Angeles, University of California Press, 1975; The inventor of gratuitous time, translated by Sarah Skinner Kilborne (with Julia Koteliansky), with a preface by André Gervais, Tout-Fait. The Marcel Duchamp studies online journal, New York, n° 2, juin 2000.

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Robert Lebel, La Double
Vue, Paris: Le Soleil noir, 1964

* Michel Butor

Passage de Milan ⁽⁷⁾, roman [écrit en 1950-1951], Paris, Minuit, 1954; coll. ” 10 / 18 “.

* Henri Pierre Roché

Victor, roman [écrit en 1957, inachevé], texte établi par Danielle Régnier-Bohler, préface et notes par Jean Clair, Paris, Centre Georges Pompidou, 1977.

* Jean Suquet

” Discours de Marcel Duchamp ivre sur la condition des filles du boulevard Saint-Laurent “, [extrait d’un roman en préparation, toujours inédit], Liberté, Montréal, n° 76-77, septembre-octobre 1971.

Tom Stoppard, pseud. de Thomas Straussler (1937-)

Artist Descending a Staircase [and Where Are They Now?], 2 plays for radio, Londres, Faber and Faber, 1973. [Artist Descending a Staircase a été jouée pour la première fois sur les ondes de la BBC le 14 novembre 1972.]

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Henri Pierre Roché, Victor,
vol. 4 of the four-volume publication issued for the exhibition
“L’Oeuvre de Marcel Duchamp,” 31 January – 2 May, 1977, Paris: Centre
Georges Pompidoue

Claude Simon (1913-)

Triptyque, roman, Paris, Minuit, 1973

Alain Robbe-Grillet (1922-)

Topologie d’une cité fantôme ⁽⁸⁾, roman, Paris, Minuit, 1976; Topology of a phantom city, translated by J. A. Underwood, New York, Grove Press, 1977.
Souvenirs du triangle d’or, roman, Paris, Minuit, 1978;Recollections of the golden triangle, translated by J. A. Underwood, London, J. Calder, 1984.
Le miroir qui revient ⁽⁹⁾, roman, Paris, Minuit, 1984;Ghosts in the mirror, translated by Jo Levy, London, J. Calder, 1988.

Jacques Charlier (…-)

Rrose Melody, Liège, Association Art Promotion, 1977.

Bryan Ferry (…-)

The Bride Stripped Bare, 33 tours, EMI, 1978; CD, Virgin 47606-2 (distribué par EMI)

* Michel Leiris

Le ruban au cou d’Olympia, Paris, Gallimard, 1981.

Jean-François Vilar (1948-)

Le ruban au cou d’Olympia, Paris, Gallimard, 1981.

[1977, livre] Jennifer Gough-Cooper (…-) & Jacques Caumont (…-)

Rrose, sa vie sans cachotteries dépeinte […], épopée [en 1150 vers], Hautot-le-Vatois (Normandie), Académie de Muséologie Évocatoire, 1985.

Michel Waldberg (1940-)

La boîte verte, Paris, Éd. de la Différence, 1995.

Walter Henry, pseud. de Paul Braffort (…-)

Chu dans mer sale ou La rumination polymorphe, Paris, la Bibliothèque oulipienne, n° 86, 1997.

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3. Ceux qui ont publié une oeuvre littéraire (roman, nouvelle, poème, etc.) ” en hommage ” ou partiellement ” en hommage ” à la personne ou à l’oeuvre de Marcel Duchamp
N.B. Les noms précédés d’un astérisque sont déjà dans la section 1

Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven

” Love – Chemical Relationship ” [poème dédié à Marcel Duchamp], The Little Review, New York, vol. 5, n° 2, juin 1918.
” Mefk Maru Mustir Daas ” [poème dédié à Marcel Duchamp], The Little Review, New York, vol. 5, n° 8, décembre 1918.

Francis Picabia

Pensées sans langage, poème [livre écrit d’octobre (?) 1918 à mars 1919, ainsi dédié: ” Chers amis Gabrielle Buffet, Ribemont-Dessaignes, Marcel Duchamp, Tristan Tzara, je vous dédie ce poème en raison de notre sympathie élective. “], Paris, Eugène Figuière, 1919; Écrits, Tome I: 1913-1920, Paris, Belfond, coll. ” Les bâtisseurs du XXe siècle “, 1975.

* André Breton

” À Rrose Sélavy “, poème [1923], dans Clair de terre, Paris, coll. ” Littérature “, 1923;Earthlight, translated by Bill Zavatsky and Zack Rogow, Los Angeles, Sun & Moon Press, 1993.

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Pierre de Massot, The Wonderful Book,
Reflections on Rrosé Selavy
(1924), in Étant donné Marcel
Duchamp, n° 2, February 2000,
pp. 97~120

* Pierre de Massot

” Mode d’emploi ” [poème écrit le 8 juin 1923, ainsi dédié: ” pour Rrose Sélavy “] et ” Jeu du ‘dans’ ” [poème écrit au début des années 1950 (?), ainsi dédié: ” pour Marcel Duchamp “], dans Poésie 1, Paris, n° 23 (Jacques Baron, Pierre de Massot, Philippe Soupault: trois poètes surréalistes), mars 1972; Étant donné Marcel Duchamp, Baby, n° 2, février 2000.
The Wonderful Book. Reflections on Rrose Sélavy, Paris, hors commerce [Imprimerie Ravilly], s.d. [1924]; Étant donné Marcel Duchamp, Baby, n° 2, février 2000.
5 poëmes, [recueil écrit de 1931 à 1946], dédié “À Marcel Duchamp”, avec un portrait de l’auteur par Francis Picabia, Paris, hors commerce [Imprimerie Gaschet et Cie], 1946.

Louis Aragon (1897-1985)

” La force ” [poème dédié ” à Marcel Duchamp “], dans Le mouvement perpétuel, poèmes 1921-1924, Paris, Gallimard, 1926.

Georges Hugnet (1906-1974)

Marcel Duchamp [poème écrit le 8 novembre 1939], avec un frontispice par Marcel Duchamp, Paris, hors commerce, 1941.

Kay Boyle (1902-1992)

Avalanche, novel [dédié ” To Monsieur and Madame Rrose Sélavy “], New York, Simon and Schuster, 1944.
” A Complaint for Mary and Marcel “, dans Collected Poems, Port Townsend (Wa), Copper Canyon Press, 1970.

Henri-François Rey (1919-1987)

Les pianos mécaniques, roman [écrit à Cadaquès de mars 1961 à février 1962] ⁽¹⁰⁾,, Paris, Laffont, 1962; coll. ” Le livre de poche “; The mechanical pianos, translated by Peter Wiles, New York, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1965.

David Young (1946-)

Agent provocateur, novel, dédié ” For Marcel Duchamp “, Toronto, Coach House Press, 1976.

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André Breton, Au Lavoir
noir, Paris: Éditions G.L.M, 1936

4. Oeuvres littéraires ” illustrées ” par Marcel Duchamp, seul ou en collaboration, ou par Marcel Duchamp et un autre artiste
N.B. Les noms précédés d’un astérisque sont déjà dans la section 1

Alfred Jarry (1873-1907)

Ubu roi [1896], Paris, Fasquelle, 1921; Reliure pour ” Ubu roi ” d’Alfred Jarry (1935), dessinée par Marcel Duchamp et exécutée par Mary Reynolds. Ubu roi, drama in 5 acts, translated by Barbara Wright, London, Gaberbocchus P., 1966; Ubu rex, translated by David Copelin, Vancouver, Pulp Press, 1977; in Three pre-surrealist plays, translated with an introduction and notes by Maya Slater, Oxford and New York, Oxford University Press, 1997.

* André Breton

Au lavoir noir, poème, avec une fenêtre de Marcel Duchamp, Paris, GLM, coll. ” Repères “, [janvier] 1936; Illustration pour ” Au lavoir noir ” d’André Breton (1935).
Young cherry trees secured against hares / Jeunes cerisiers garantis contre les lièvres, choix de poèmes traduit par Édouard Roditi, avec des dessins d’Arshile Gorky, New York, View Editions, [mars ou avril] 1946; Couverture pour ” Young cherry trees secured against hares ” d’André Breton (1945).

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André Breton, Young Cherry
Trees Secured against Hares, Edward Roditi (trans.), New York:
View Editions, 1946

Georges Hugnet

La septième face du dé, poèmes découpages, couvertures cigarettes par Marcel Duchamp, Paris, Éd. Jeanne Bucher, [mai] 1936; Couverture pour ” La septième face du dé ” de Georges Hugnet (1936).
Marcel Duchamp [poème écrit le 8 novembre 1939], avec un frontispice par Marcel Duchamp, Paris, hors commerce, 1941; Moustache et barbe de L.H.O.O.Q. (1941).
Giorgio de Chirico (1888-1978)
Hebdomeros, Paris, Éd. du Carrefour, 1929; Reliure pour ” Hebdomeros ” de Giorgio de Chirico (1936-1939), dessinée par Marcel Duchamp et exécutée par Mary Reynolds.

Francis Picabia

L’équilibre, [poème écrit en 1917], avec une gravure de Marcel Duchamp, Alès, PAB, [août] 1958.

Pierre-André Benoit (1921-1993)

Première lumière, poème, avec une gravure de Marcel Duchamp, Alès, PAB, [août] 1959.

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Georges Hugnet, La septiéme
face du dé, Paris: Éditions Jeanne Bucher, 1936

Georges Hugnet, Marcel Duchamp,
a poem and front piece with
Moustache et barbe de L.H.O.O.Q.
(1941) by Duchamp, Paris:
Hors Commerce, 1941

*Pierre de Massot

Tiré à quatre épingles, poèmes, avec une gravure de Marcel Duchamp, Alès, PAB, [été] 1959.
Marcel Duchamp. Propos et souvenirs, avec un readymade rectifié et en couleurs de Marcel Duchamp, Milan, chez Arturo Schwarz, 1965; L.H.O.O.Q. (réplique, septembre 1964); Étant donné Marcel Duchamp, Baby, n° 2, février 2000.

* Arturo Schwarz

Il Reale Assoluto, poèmes [en italien], avec onze lithographies de Marcel Duchamp et de Man Ray, Milan, Galleria Schwarz, 1964; Certificat de lecture (février-mars 1964).

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Pierre-André Benoit, Première
lumière, Alès: PAB, 1959
Pierre de Massot, Tiré
à quatre épingles, Alès: PAB, 1959

* Robert Lebel

La double vue suivi de L’inventeur du temps gratuit, avec un diptyque gravé à l’eau-forte par Alberto Giacometti et un pliage de Marcel Duchamp (pour les 111 premiers exemplaires), avec une eau-forte de Ferró (pour les 150 exemplaires suivants), Paris, le Soleil noir, 1964; La pendule de profil (1964).

Envoyer vos remarques: André_Gervais@uqar.uquebec.ca

Notes

1. Cette rétrospective contient Mont de piété [1919, avec 2 dessins d’André Derain], Clair de terre [1923, avec un portrait par Pablo Picasso], L’union libre [1931], Le revolver à cheveux blancs [1932, avec une eau-forte par Salvador Dali], Violette Nozières [1933], L’air de l’eau [1934, avec 4 gravures par Alberto Giacometti] et Au lavoir noir [1936, avec une fenêtre de Marcel Duchamp].

2. Cette rétrospective contient [Poèmes 1935-1940], Pleine marge [1943, avec une eau-forte de Kurt Seligmann], Fata morgana [1941, avec 4 dessins de Wilfredo Lam], [Poèmes 1940-1943], Les états généraux[1944], Des épingles tremblantes [1948], Xénophiles [1948], Ode à Charles Fourier [1947], Oubliés [1948],Constellations [1959, avec 22 gouaches de Juan Miró] et Le la [1961, avec une lithographie de Jean Benoît].

3. Cette rétrospective contient, en totalité ou en partie, les brefs petits livres suivants: Soliloque de Nausicaa [1928, avec cinq dessins de Jean Cocteau], 5 poëmes [1946, avec un portrait de l’auteur par Francis Picabia], Orestie [1949], Mot clé des mensonges [1954], Galets abandonnés sur la page [1958, avec une eau-forte de Jacques Villon] et Tiré à quatre épingles [1959, avec une gravure de Marcel Duchamp], auxquels elle ajoutePrison de neige, poèmes écrits en 1960-1961.

4. Cette rétrospective récente ajoute à la précédente plusieurs autres poèmes ainsi qu’une étude et une biographie.

5. Cette rétrospective contient les livres suivants: Simulacre [1925], Le point cardinal [1927], Glossaire: j’y serre mes gloses [commencé en 1925; 1939, avec des lithographies d’André Masson], Bagatelles végétales [1956, avec 6 gravures de Juan Miró] et Marrons sculptés pour Miró [1961, avec une lithographie en couleurs de Juan Miró]. Le Glossaire… a une suite: Langage tangage ou Ce que les mots me disent, Paris, Gallimard, 1985.

6. Sur le rabat de la jaquette: ” Manuscrits choisis à coups de ciseaux, photographies le plus souvent en noir et blanc, articles perdus parmi les feuilles mortes, entretiens de vive voix, clins d’oeil à des amis, retracent sans horloge ni boussole le voyage. ”

7. Michel Butor, lors de la discussion suivant la communication de Patrice Quéréel sur ce roman dans le cadre d’un colloque sur son oeuvre (qui a eu lieu du 24 juin au 1er juillet 1973), précise ceci: ” En ce qui concerne les appareils idéologiques d’État, j’ai constamment pensé, en vous écoutant, à Marcel Duchamp: il y avait dans cette façon de voir ces institutions le modèle du grand verre de Marcel Duchamp qui est évoqué de toutes sortes de manières dans ce livre. ” Ceci dans Georges Raillard (sous la dir. de), Butor. Colloque de Cerisy, Paris, UGÉ, coll. ” 10 / 18 “, n° 902, 1974, p. 84.

8. Georges Raillard, dans ” Mots de passe. Quelques notes prises au cours d’une traversée difficile: La belle captive [1976] “, Obliques, Les Pilles, n° 16-17 (Robbe-Grillet), 4e trimestre 1978, cite la dédicace de l’auteur sur un exemplaire de Topologie…: ” quelque chose comme mon Grand Verre “.

9. Georges Raillard intitule ” Le Grand Verre de Robbe-Grillet ” (La Quinzaine littéraire, Paris, n° 432, 16-31 janvier 1985) sa critique de ce premier tome de l'” autobiographie ” robbegrillettienne, dont le titre général estRomanesques.

10. Ce roman ne contient qu’une brève allusion à Duchamp qui, de 1958 à 1968, passera un ou quelques mois du printemps ou de l’été dans ce village catalan.

Painting the Large Glass

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Octavian Balea,
the “Large Glass”

[Some time ago, Octavio Balea contacted us from Romania. We learned about his enthusiasm for Duchamp and the horrible state his country is in. It was all the more surprising to see him put with what he called the ignorance of his people and express himself through art. He is angry at the legacy Ceaucescu’s dictatorship has left behind. As a caring and and enthusiastic young man, he is often laughed at, trying to open the eyes of his fellow students to modern art. Octavian draws, paints and takes photographs. A recent series of his work was inspired by Duchamp.]

“Here is why I painted that painting, on my parent’s glass: One night, at 2 A.M., staring at the ceiling, and at the walls, and I thought that the world was getting back at me for a mistake I had never made! I remember that I took the brush in my hand, and I started to paint on what was closest to me! The window was the first thing that I noticed. I was inspired by the genial masterpiece of Marcel Duchamp, called “The Large Glass.” I think that Duchamp wanted to tell more, more than the human mind is able to understand. More than the words can say. I am trying to find a better way to express what it is to express and it is not expressed yet.”

We Deserve Scheme Z and Excavation or the Law of Diminishing Returns

Click here for Video (83.5 KB)

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We Deserve Scheme Z.

This is a Reclamation Artists Project in 1990 at the height of public outcry against “the Big Dig” in Charlestown-a five tiered eight-lane expressway interchange, part of the Central Artery/Third Harbor Tunnel Project for Greater Boston. A gas pump contains a video monitor showing Boston rush-hour traffic with the audio track overdubbed several times until it sounds like babble. A dead bird covered in oil lays where the price per gallon is usually displayed. The word “Mobiline” is taken from Duchamp’s “love gasoline” the substance activating the Bride’s motor in his work “The Bridge Stripped Bare by her Bachelors, Even” in the Phildelphia Museum of Art.

Excavation or the Law of Diminishing Returns.

l994 Reclamation Artists project about the same highway system. North Point, Cambridge. Replicas of Duchamp’s Readymades appear to be strewn along an excavated highway. This installation is on the site of the (now under construction) Central Artery. The installation was intended to “disturb the peace” of Modernism as Duchamp had done and as the highway construction is presently doing.

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Into the Vitrine

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Marcel Duchamp,
Interior view of Etant donnés: 1º la chute d’eau / 2º le gas
d’éclairage (Given: 1. The Waterfall /2. The Illuminating Gas),
1946-66

Into the Vitrine
The hand melted down in carbon
like ash
but veined
palpably
Fingers in a throttle
and over all
of course
wax
Into the vitrine
it all went
Visibility held its charms
but oh so old
And so closeted in glass
no stench arose.
Rrose Sélavy,
she said.
Harriet Zinnes, 1999

Memoirs: Art & Art History

These six paintings linking Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray are part of a long-term project on art, artists and art movements. The Duchamp/Man Ray paintings are pairs or companion pieces. The paintings, in gouache, are not absolutely faithful to detail or color and are painted with flat surfaces and thin paint so as not to reproduce the texture of the originals. The series began late in 1995. It was completed in early 2000 with nineteen paintings.

The work is in various paint media-gouache, acrylic, oil-acrylic gel transfer photocopies and computer-generated type. While each pair of paintings carries intellectual and personal content, their primary impact is visual.

The block letter texts framing the images are gleaned from various sources; they are pertinent to the images and are combinations of artist’s titles and descriptions as well as observations from critics, historians and curators, and others.

Some of the artists have influenced me or been a source of inspiration. Others’ work uses motifs and backdrops for intertextual discourse. Each pair has a Jewish context or presence. The Jewishness is represented by my selection of artists, critics, and historians. The paintings are personal responses to specific aesthetics, works of art, artists, art movements, art personalities, and my own social, aesthetic, or political engagement with them.

In this century, copying, can be found in the work of Pablo Picasso, Roy Lichtenstein and Sherrie Levine. Picasso abducted other sources because he needed icons as sources of inspiration; Lichtenstein carried away various modernist pictures to praise and subvert them for his popular comic book style and Levine deconstructed modernist paradigms in her “stainless steals.” Unlike Picasso, I am not pilfering images; unlike Lichtenstein, I am not re-designing paintings to convey a post-modern aura; and unlike Levine, I am not re-writing history. But more like the poster paintings of Charles Demuth, on the other hand, which were tributes to his friends and associates, this work is largely about late modernism, artists and critics and their complicated inter-personal associations.

The written material, aside the paintings, augments the narrative I tell in pictures and words:

Paintings 1 & 2, 1997-1998 (44″x34″)

Left Panel: ADOPTED BY THE FRENCH/PAINTING WITH LIGHT/OUR OWN MAN RAY/BROKEN WITH SIGHT

The background image is a painted copy of Man Ray’s The Rope Dancer Accompanies herself with her Shadows, 1916. This painting was completed while Marcel Duchamp was working on his Large Glass; it is in homage to or, at least, is an allusion to Duchamp’s work. The central photocopy is a Man Ray self-portrait photograph with a camera. His quote reads: “I tell them that the tricks of today are the truths of tomorrow.” The photocopy in the lower center is a photograph of the lower portion of The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even by Man Ray and Marcel Duchamp’s Dust Breeding, 1920.

Right panel: WELCOME TO NEW YORK/BROKEN WITH SIGHT/ENIGMATIC DUCHAMP/ANTI RETINAL ART

The background image is a painted copy of Duchamp’s drawing for the Large Glass. The central photocopy is a photograph of Duchamp by Man Ray. His quote reads: “It is idle to explain it, I do not explain it. It is, after all, the fourth dimension.” The photocopy in the lower center is the lower portion of the Large Glass photographed by Charles Scheeler, c. 1921.

Text around these paintings was gleaned from what the artists said and what others said about them. “WELCOME TO NEW YORK,” is from a Francis Picabia painting completed shortly after he made his first visit to the city and encouraged Duchamp to follow.

Duchamp, a son of a French notary, and Man Ray, born of immigrant Jews in Philadelphia, were friends and partners in art and chess since they met in New Jersey in 1915 where they feigned an imaginary game of tennis. Perhaps this was the first work of Performance Art. They shared interests in Dada, machine-like contrivances, cross-dressing, women, sex and readymades, as well as chess, for over fifty years.

Paintings 3 & 4, 1998 (44″x34″)

Left Panel: …ROSE SEL A VIE/EROSE C’EST LA VIE/EM(MAN)UEL (RA)DNITSK(Y)/C’EST DE LA BELLE HÆLEINE

The background images are painted copies of Man Ray drawings: the left side drawing was done from a photograph of Man Ray’s wife, Julie in 1942; the right side is a surrealist drawing, Sablier-compte fils [(the) Hourglass Counts (the) Threads, (probably another reference to the bride stripping bare)], 1938. The central photocopy is a self-portrait photograph in which Man Ray depicts himself about to indulge in multiple suicides. His quote reads: “To Be-continued unnoticed.” The photocopy lower center is a magazine reproduction of a solarized print with color: Beauty in Ultra Violet, 1940.

Right Panel: …ROSE SEL A VIE/EROS C’EST LA VIE/RROSE SELAVY/C’EST LA BELLE HELENE

The background images are painted copies of Duchamp’s etchings. The left side is from Lucas Cranach’s Adam and Eve from a presentation, years before, with Duchamp on stage as Adam and Bronia Perlmutter as Eve in a Ciné Sketch produced by Francis Picabia and René Clair at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées. The right side is from a painting by Gustav Courbét-this is the bride stripping bare; the falcon represents a “peeping Tom” bachelor and “a false cunt and a real one,” according to Duchamp. The central photocopy is a photograph of Duchamp as Rrose Selavy-his alter ego Jewish woman persona. His quote reads: “…I consider myself…’an unfrocked artist.'” The photocopy lower center is Duchamp’s relief maquette, painted leather over a plaster mounted on velvet, for Etant donné: Given the Illuminating Gas and the Waterfall, 1948-’49.

Multiple puns abound in the text: Man Ray’s, “…ROSE SEL A VIE (originally a Rayograph Dadist object portrait of Duchamp published in The little Review, 1922) translates to “ROSE THE SALT OF LIFE,” Duchamp’s French enunciation, EROS C’EST LA VIE, is “EROTICISM THAT’S LIFE,” and his English transliteration of RROSE SELAVY is “ROSE LEVY.” Other puns revolve around the perfume bottle readymade with a photograph portrait of Duchamp as a woman wearing a hat (not shown) called “C”EST DE LA BELLE HÆLEINE-BEAUTIFUL BREATH.” (I superimposed the “A” over the “E” to make the pun on “HALEINE” more closely resemble “HELENE.” “C’EST DE LA BELLE HELENE-BEAUTIFUL HELEN,” which is my addition to the punster game.

Paintings 5 & 6, 1998 (44″x34″)

Left Panel: I AND MARCEL A DUEL/THE KING IS MINE/PORTRAIT OF THIRTY YEARS/THE QUEEN IS YOURS (This is to be read horizontally top and bottom and vertically right and left.)

The background image is a painted copy of Man Ray’s Night Sun–Abandoned Playground, 1943. The central photocopy is a photograph of Man Ray and Duchamp, as old men, playing chess. His quote reads: “The Cosmic Urge-with ape-ologies to PicASSo, 1915.” The photocopy lower center is Man Ray’s whimsical construction of a chess board with three giant chess pieces, Permanent Attraction, 1948

Right Panel: A YOUNG MAN OF GOOD/ELEMENTARY TREATICE/ PROVINCIAL/FAMILY/ON FOUR-DIMENSIONS (This is to be read horizontally top and bottom and vertically right and left.)

The background image is a painted copy of Duchamp’s The Chess Game, 1910, which includes his two artist brothers playing chess and his sisters sitting around. The central photocopy is of a photograph of Man Ray and Duchamp, as young men, playing chess. His quote reads: “A piece of canned chance. It’s amusing to put chance in a can,” 1913-1914. The photocopy lower center is of Duchamp’s construction, “Pocket Chess set with Rubber Glove,” 1966, upside down.

The mysteries of chess, plays on words, games, chance, physics and mathematics were mutual interests of these perplexing artists.

Marcel Duchamp and Literature

By no means complete and, on more than one occasion, eminently perfectible, this bibliography aspires nevertheless to offer the first gathering of the names of writers and the titles of literary works that are related, either directly or indirectly, to Marcel Duchamp or to the work of Marcel Duchamp.

For matters of clarification, entries have been arranged chronologically in each of the four sections. If a book is reprinted or initially published in a paperback edition, this is indicated. If a book is translated, in full or in part, in English or in French, this is also indicated.

The four sections are the following:
I. Those who have published
a. at least one book, chapter, or article on the work of Marcel Duchamp, or an interview with him, as well as
b. a literary work (novel, collection of short stories, poetry, play).
II. Those who have published a literary work (novel, short story, play, etc.) which was “inspired” or “partially inspired” by the work of Marcel Duchamp or Duchamp himself.
III. Those who have published a literary work (novel, short story, poem, etc.) “in honor of” or “in partial honor of” Marcel Duchamp or his work.
IV. Literary works “illustrated” by Marcel Duchamp (alone or in collaboration) or by Marcel Duchamp and another artist.

Recognition of the first important work by Duchamp, of several works by Duchamp, and of what we’ve agreed to collectively call “the art of Marcel Duchamp” truly began in 1913 – with public recognition from the Americans (at the Armory Show, 1913) and critical recognition from the French (Apollinaire, 1913). Although more developed on the English-speaking side, the connections between art and literature, if one were to consider them, seem clearly more constant, even more consistent, on the French-speaking side. No relation of cause and effect here, but a simple observation: quite a lot of those who have written or will write about Marcel Duchamp have written or will also write (most often in French) literary texts.

André Gervais Janvier 2000

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Those who have published a. at least one book, chapter, or article on the work of Marcel Duchamp, or an interview with him, as well as b. a literary work (novel, collection of short stories, poetry, play).
Note : In each case, the publication date of (a) is provided first, in brackets, before the author’s name. Following the author’s name is a list of his/her literary texts. Where an author has published a number of literary texts, the choice has been limited to four.

[1913, Chapter] Guillaume Apollinaire, pseud. de Wilhem Apollinaire de Kostrowitzky (1880-1918)

L’enchanteur pourrissant With a portrait by Pablo Picasso. Paris : Mercure de France, 1913; Paris: Gallimard, coll. “Poésie/Gallimard”; Alcools. Translated by Anne Hyde Greet, with a foreword by Warren Ramsey. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1965; Alcools. Translated by Donald Revell. Hanover: University Press of New England for Wesleyan University Press, 1995.
Le poète assassiné, With a portrait by André Rouveyre. Paris: Bibliothèque des curieux, 1916; Paris: Gallimard, coll. “Poésie / Gallimard”; The Poet Assassinated. Translated with a bibliographical notice and notes by Matthew Josephson. New York: The Broom Pub. Co., 1923; The Poet Assassinated. Translated by Ron Padgett, illustrated by Jim Dine. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1968.
Calligrammes, [Poems of peace and war 1913-1916]. With a portrait by Pablo Picasso. Paris : Mercure de France, 1918; Paris: Gallimard, coll. “Poésie / Gallimard “; Calligrammes. Translated by Anne Hyde Greet, with an introduction by S. I. Lockerbie and commentary by Anne Hyde Greet and S. I. Lockerbie. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980.

[1917, Article-entrevue] Mina Loy, pseud. de Mina Lowy (1882-1966)

Lunar Baedecker [sic], Paris: Contact Publishing Company, 1923; Lunar Baedeker & Time-tables. Highlands, NC: Jonathan Williams, 1958; The Last Lunar Baedeker. Edited and introduced by Roger L. Conover. Highlands, NC: The Jargon Society, 1982; The Lost Lunar Baedeker. Definitive edition, edited and introduced by Roger L. Conover. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1996

[1917, Article]Louise Varèse, née Louise McCutcheon (1890-1988)

St.-John Perse. Éloges, and other poems, French text with English translation by Louise Varèse and introduction by Archibald MacLeish, New York, W.W. Norton & Co, 1944.
Charles Baudelaire. Paris Spleen, translated by Louise Varèse, New York, New Directions, 1947.
Marcel Proust. Pleasures and Regrets, translated by Louise Varèse, with a preface by Anatole France, New York, Crown Publishers, 1948.
Varèse: A Looking-Glass Diary, Volume 1, 1883-1928; New York, W.W. Norton & Co, 1972.

[1922, Article] André Breton (1896-1966)

Nadja [1928], [story] Completely revised edition, by the author. Paris: Gallimard, 1963; coll. “Folio”; Nadja. Translated by Richard Howard. New York: Grove Press, 1960 and London: Evergreen Books, Ltd., 1960.
Arcane 17 [1944, with four colored tarot strips by Matta] enté d’Ajours. With three etchings by Baskine. Paris: Éd. du Sagittaire, 1947; coll. “10 / 18 “; Arcanum 17 : With Apertures : Grafted to the End. Translated by Zack Rogow, with an introduction by Anna Balakian. Toronto: Coach House Press, 1994.
Clair de terre⁽¹⁾, [poems]. Preface by Alain Jouffroy. Paris: Gallimard, coll. “Poésie / Gallimard,” 1966.
Signe ascendant⁽²⁾, Paris: Gallimard, coll. “Poésie / Gallimard,” 1966

[1924, Preface] Gertrude Stein (1874-1946)

Geography and Plays, Boston, The Four Seas Company, 1922.
The Making of Americans, Being a History of a Family’s Progress , novel, Paris, Contact Editions, 1925; Américains d’Amérique, histoire d’une famille américaine, traduction de la baronne J. Seillère et de Bernard Faÿ, Paris, Stock, Delamain et Boutelleau, 1933.
The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, London, John Lane, The Bodley Head, 1933;Autobiographie d’Alice Toklas, traduction de Bernard Faÿ, Paris, Gallimard, 1934.
Everybody’s Autobiography, New York, Random House, 1937; Autobiographies, traduction de la baronne d’Aiguy [May Tagnard], Paris, Éd. Confluences, 1945.

[1924, Book]

Pierre de Massot (1900-1969)
Prolégomènes à une éthique sans métaphysique ou Billy, bull-dog et philosophe [essay]. Paris: Éditions de la Montagne, 1930.
Mon corps, ce doux démon [written 1932] [autobiography]. Letter-preface by André Gide, with an engraved portrait by Jacques Villon, s.l.n.d. [Alès: PAB, 1959].
Le mystère des maux [poems]. With a drawing by Francis Picabia. Paris: hors commerce [Imprimerie René Martinet et Cie], 1961.⁽³⁾
Le déserteur. Oeuvre poétique 1923-1969, texts collected and presented by Gérard Pfister, Paris, Arfuyen, 1992.⁽⁴⁾

[1936, article] Michel Leiris

L’âge d’homme published 1939]. Preceded by: De la littérature considérée comme une tauromachie [1946] [first autobiography]. Paris: Gallimard, 1946; Paris: Gallimard, coll. “Folio”; Manhood : A Journey from Childhood into the Fierce Order of Virility. Preceded by: The Autobiographer as Torero. Translated by Richard Howard. New York: Grossman Publishers, 1963.
La règle du jeu. Tome I: Biffures,Tome II: Fourbis, Tome III: Fibrilles [and] Tome IV: Frêle bruit [second autobiography]. Paris: Gallimard, respectively 1948, 1955, 1966 and 1976: the four volumes, coll. “L’imaginaire”; Rules of the Game: Scratches [Biffures]. Translated by Lydia Davis. New York: Paragon House, 1991 [Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University, 1997]; Scraps [Fourbis]. Translated by Lydia Davis. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University, 1997.
Mots sans mémoire ⁽⁵⁾, Paris, Gallimard, 1969.
Journal 1922-1989,Critical edition presented and annotated by Jean Jamin. Paris: Gallimard, 1992.

[1937, article] Roger Caillois (1913-1978)

Art poétique, Paris, Gallimard, 1958.
Esthétique généralisée, Paris, Gallimard, 1962.
Pierres, Paris, Gallimard, 1966.
Obliques [1967] précédé de Images, images… [1966], Paris, Gallimard, coll. ” Le monde ouvert “, 1974.

[1938, article-entrevue; 1959, livre] Robert Lebel (1901-1986)

Masque à lame, Illustrated by Isabelle Waldberg. New York: Éd. Hémisphères, 1943.
L’oiseau caramel,, Illustrated by Max Ernst. Paris: le Soleil noir, 1969.
La Saint-Charlemagne, illustré par Max Ernst, Paris, le Soleil noir, 1976.

[1945, article] Man Ray, pseud. d’Emmanuel Radnitsky (1890-1976)

Self portrait [begun 1951, published 1963] [autobiography]. Foreword by Merry A. Foresta. Afterword by Juliet Man Ray. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., and the New York Graphic Society, 1988; Autoportrait. Translated into French by Anne Guérin. Paris: Laffont, 1964; Arles: Actes Sud, coll. “Babel.”
Ce que je suis et autres textes, Presented by Vincent Lavoie. Paris: Hoëbeke, coll. “Arts & esthétique,” 1998.

[1945, article] Nicolas Calas [pseud.], [also known as Nikolas Kalas], Nikos Kalamares (1907- )

Odos Niketa Randou [Rue Nikita Randou], poèmes, Athènes, Ikaros, 1977.

[1949, article] Gaston Puel (1924-)

Paysage nuptial, frontispice de Hans Bellmer, Paris, GLM, 1947.
La jamais rencontrée, frontispice de Max Ernst, Paris, Seghers, 1950.
Ce chant entre deux astres, collage de Jean Arp en double frontispice, Lyon, Henneuse éd., 1956.
Le cinquième château, avec deux bois originaux de Raoul Ubac, Veilhes, la Fenêtre ardente, 1965.

[1950, article; 1974, livre] Jean Suquet (1928-)

Jamais rien ni personne, Enhanced with an engraving faded by time. Paris: le Parler de la lune aphasique, 1958.
Une chimie greffée de chimères,Paris: le Parler de la lune aphasique, 1972.
Oubli sablier intarissable⁽⁶⁾, n° spécial de la revue Liard, Bordeaux, 1996.

[1952, article; 1954, chapitre] Michel Carrouges, pseud. de Louis Couturier (1910-1988)

Les portes dauphines, roman, Paris, Gallimard, 1954.
Les grands-pères prodiges, roman, Paris, Plon, 1957.

[1953, article] Henri Pierre Roché (1879-1959)

Jean Roc [pseud.]. Don Juan et… [story]. Paris: Éd. de la Sirène, 1921; Marseille: André Dimanche Éditeur, 1993.
Jules et Jim [novel]. Paris: Gallimard, 1953; coll. “Folio”; Jules and Jim, translated by Patrick Evans. London and Boston: M. Boyars, 1963.
Deux Anglaises et le continent, roman, Paris, Gallimard, 1956.
Carnets. Les années Jules et Jim. Part one, 1920-1921. Foreword by François Truffaut. Marseille: André Dimanche Éditeur, 1990.

[1954, article-entrevue] Alain Jouffroy (1928-)

Un rêve plus long que la nuit, roman, Paris, Gallimard, 1964; coll. ” Folio “.
Trajectoire, récit-récitatif, Paris: Gallimard, 1968.
Liberté des libertés, Illustrated by Joan Miró and Valerio Adami. Paris: le Soleil noir, 1971.
L’ouverture de l’être 1947-1962, poèmes,Preface by Sarane Alexandrian. Paris: Éd. de la Différence, coll. “Littérature,” 1983.

[1957, article-entrevue] Jean Schuster (1929-1995)

Les moutons, Paris, Éd. le Récipiendaire, 1978.
Introduction and notes by Michel Déon. Paris: Éd. de la Table ronde, 1964; Paris: Gallimard, coll. “Idées”; Diary of a Genius. Foreword and notes by Michel Déon. Translated by Richard Howard. New York: Doubleday, 1965.

[1959, article] Salvador Dali (1904-1989)

La vie secrète de Salvador Dali, Translated by Haakon M. Chevalier. New York: Dial Press, 1942; La vie secrète de Salvador Dali. Adapted by Michel Déon. Paris: Éd. de la Table ronde, coll. “Les vies perpendiculaires,” 1952; Paris: Gallimard, coll. “Idées.”.

[1963, article] John Cage (1912-1992)

Silence, lectures and writings; A Year from Monday [new lectures and writings]; M [writings, ’67-’72]; Empty Words [writings, ’73-’78]; X [writings, ’79-’82]; Middletown (CT): Wesleyan University Press, respectively 1961, 1967, 1973, 1979 and 1983; Silence. Translated into the French by Monique Fong. Paris: Denoël, 1970.
Pour les oiseaux, Dialogues with Daniel Charles. Paris: Belfond, 1976; For the Birds, Boston: M. Boyards, 1981.

[1964, chapitre; 1967, livre] Arturo Schwarz (1924-)

Choix de poèmes [en français], Paris, Seghers, 1956.
Il Reale Assoluto, With eleven lithographs by Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray. Milan: Galleria Schwarz, 1964..
Per Vera, poems In Italian. With a portrait of Vera by Franco Francese. Milan: Penna di Pollo Editore, 1984.
A coat made of wind, n English. With an engraving by Ofer Lellouche. Tel-Aviv: The Genia Shreiber University Art Gallery, Tel Aviv University, 1994.

[1968, article] Denis de Rougemont (1906-1985)

L’amour et l’occident, essay [1939], Revised edition. Paris: Plon, 1956; Paris: UGÉ, coll. “10 / 18”; Love in the Western World. Revised and augmented edition. Translated by Montgomery Belgion. New York: Pantheon, 1956. [The other title of this translation is Passion and Society, London: Faber and Faber, 1956].
La part du diable [fin 1942],New version. Neuchâtel: la Baconnière, 1945; The Devil’s Share [essay]. On the diabolic in modern society. Translated by Haakon M. Chevalier. New York: Meridian Books, 1956.
Lettres sur la bombe atomique, Paris, Gallimard, 1946.
Journal d’une époque 1926-1946, Paris: Gallimard, 1968. [Revised edition of Journal des deux mondes, 1947.].

[1968, livre] Octavio Paz (1914-1998)

Liberté sur parole [translated into French, 1966], followed by: Condition de nuage, Aigle ou soleil [1951], À la limite du monde [1942], and Pierre de soleil [1957, translated into French, 1962] [poems]; Translated from the Spanish by Jean-Clarence Lambert (reviewd by the author) and Benjamin Péret. Paris: Gallimard, coll. “Poésie / Gallimard,” 1971.
Versant Est [Ladera Este (1962-1968), Translated from the Spanish into French by Yesé Amory et al. Paris: Gallimard, 1970; coll. “Poésie / Gallimard.”
The collected poems of Octavio Paz, 1957-1987, Edited and translated into English by Eliot Weinberger, with additional translations by Elizabeth Bishop et al. New York: New Directions, 1987.
Le singe grammairien, Translated into the French by Claude Esteban. Geneva: Skira, coll. “Les sentiers de la création,” 1972; The Monkey Grammarian. Translated into the English by Helen R. Lane. New York: Seaver Books, 1981.

[1969, article] Bernard Teyssèdre (1930-)

Romans-éclairs, Paris, Grasset, 1961.
Foi de fol, [comical story entangled with plagiarism and examples]. Paris: Gallimard, coll. “Le chemin,”1968.
Le roman de l’Origine, Paris: Gallimard, coll. “L’Infini,” 1996.

[1971, article] José Pierre (1927-1998 ?)

Qu’est-ce que Thérèse? C’est les marronniers en fleurs, roman, Paris, le Soleil noir, 1974; coll. ” J’ai lu. Pour lecteurs avertis “.
La charité commence par un baiser, Paris: Galilée, coll. “Ligne fictive,” 1980.
Les barreaux du coeur, roman, Paris, Mercure de France, coll. ” Le Mercure galant “, 1986.
La fontaine close. Mercure de France, coll. “Le Mercure galant,” 1986.
La fontaine close. Les livres secrets d’une secte gnostique inconnue. Paris: l’Instant, coll. “Griffures,” 1988.

[1972, article] Marcelin Pleynet (1933-)

Stanze. Incantation dite au bandeau d’or, Paris, Seuil, coll. ” Tel quel “, 1973.
Rime, Paris, Seuil, coll. ” Tel quel “, 1981.
Le jour et l’heure, journal, Paris, Plon, coll. ” Carnets “, 1988.
La vie à deux ou trois, roman, Paris, Gallimard, 1992.

[1973, article] David Antin (1932-)

Selected Poems 1963-1973, Los Angeles: Sun & Moon Press, coll. “Sun & Moon classics,” 1991; Poèmes parlés. Translated into the French by Jacques Darras et al., preface by Jacques Darras. Saint-Pierre-du-Mont: les Cahiers des brisants, coll. “les Cahiers de Royaumont,” 1984.

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2. Those who have published a literary work (novel, short story, play, etc.) which was “inspired” or “partially inspired” by the work of Marcel Duchamp or Duchamp himself;
Note: Names preceded by an asterisk have already been listed in Section I.

Elmer Ernest Southard (1876-1920)

” Mlle de l’escalier ” [novella, dictated into English, November 17, 1916]. In The Open Mind. Elmer Ernest Southard 1876-1920 by Frederick P. Gay. Chicago: Normandie House, 1938.

Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven, (“The Baroness”), born Elsa Hildegard Ploetz (1874-1927)
“Portrait de Marcel Duchamp” [poem]. In English. The Little Review, vol. 9, no. 2 (New York, Winter 1922).

Henrie Waste, Henrietta (“Ettie”) Stettheimer (1874-1955)

Love Days [Susanna Moore’s], [written from 1919 (?) to 1922] [novel]. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, [August] 1923.
” Pensée-Cadeau: vers à un ami ” [Summer 1922] [poem]. In French. View, series 5, no. 1 (New York, March 1945)

Robert Desnos (1900-1945)

Rrose Sélavy [written October 1922-1923] [aphorisms]. Published in part in Littérature, new series: no. 7 (Paris, December 1, 1922); published in part (but with variation) in Corps et biens. Paris: Gallimard, 1930; coll. “Poésie / Gallimard.”
L’aumonyme [written from November 1922 to December 1923]. In Corps et biens. Paris: Gallimard, 1930; coll. “Poésie / Gallimard.”

Francis Picabia (1879-1953)
Caravansérail [written from June 1923 to January 1924] [novel]. Paris: Belfond, 1974.

[1974, article] Bernard Pingaud (1923-)

La voix de son maître, Paris, Gallimard, 1973.
La scène primitive, Paris, Gallimard, 1984; coll. ” L’imaginaire “.
Adieu Kafka, roman, Paris, Gallimard, 1989.
Bartoldi le comédien, roman, Paris, Seuil, 1996.

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Elmer Ernest Southard (1876-1920)

” Mlle de l’escalier ” [novelette, dictée le 17 novembre 1916], dans Frederick P. Gay, The Open Mind. Elmer Ernest Southard 1876-1920, Chicago, Normandie House, 1938.

Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven, dite The Baroness, née Elsa Hildegard Ploetz (1874-1927)

” Portrait de Marcel Duchamp “, The Little Review, New York, vol. 9, n° 2, hiver 1922.

Henrie Waste, pseud. d’Henrietta, dite Ettie, Stettheimer (1874-1955)

[1974, article] Jean-Clarence Lambert (1930-)

Les armes parlantes. Pratique de la poésie, Paris, Belfond, 1976.
Idylles précédé de Féminaire, dessins de Corneille, Paris, Galilée, coll. ” Écritures, figures “, 1985.
Poésie en jeu 1953-1973, Paris, Galilée, coll. ” Écritures, figures “, 1986.
Le jardin le labyrinthe 1953-1989, poèmes, prologue d’Octavio Paz, Paris, Éd. de la Différence, coll. ” Littérature “, 1991.[1974, article] Gilbert Lascault (1934-)
Enfances choisies, Paris, Bourgois, 1976.
Encyclopédie abrégée de l’Empire vert, Paris, Maurice Nadeau: Papyrus, coll. ” Lettres nouvelles “, 1983.
Éloges à Geneviève, Paris, Balland, 1985.
Les amours d’Arthur-Toujours-Là et de Monika-Belle-de-Givre, mies de pain de Pétra Werlé, Strasbourg, Baby Lone, coll. ” L’île sonnante “, 1986.

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Elmer Ernest Southard (1876-1920)

” Mlle de l’escalier ” [novelette, dictée le 17 novembre 1916], dans Frederick P. Gay, The Open Mind. Elmer Ernest Southard 1876-1920, Chicago, Normandie House, 1938.

Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven, dite The Baroness, née Elsa Hildegard Ploetz (1874-1927)

” Portrait de Marcel Duchamp “, The Little Review, New York, vol. 9, n° 2, hiver 1922.

Henrie Waste, pseud. d’Henrietta, dite Ettie, Stettheimer (1874-1955)

[1975, article] Michel Butor (1926-)

La modification, roman, Paris, Minuit, 1957; coll. ” 10 / 18 “.
Mobile, étude pour une représentation des États-Unis, Paris, Gallimard, 1962; Mobile, study for a representation of the United States, translated by Richard Howard, New York, Simon and Schuster, 1963.
Matière de rêves, Matière de rêves II. Second sous-sol, Matière de rêves III. Troisième dessous et Matière de rêves IV. Quadruple fond, Paris, Gallimard, coll. ” Le chemin “, respectivement 1975, 1976, 1977, 1981.
Envois et Exprès. (Envois 2), poèmes, Paris, Gallimard, coll. ” Le chemin “, 1980 et 1983.

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Elmer Ernest Southard (1876-1920)

” Mlle de l’escalier ” [novelette, dictée le 17 novembre 1916], dans Frederick P. Gay, The Open Mind. Elmer Ernest Southard 1876-1920, Chicago, Normandie House, 1938.

Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven, dite The Baroness, née Elsa Hildegard Ploetz (1874-1927)

” Portrait de Marcel Duchamp “, The Little Review, New York, vol. 9, n° 2, hiver 1922.

Henrie Waste, pseud. d’Henrietta, dite Ettie, Stettheimer (1874-1955)

[1975, livre] Jean Clair, pseud. de Gérard Régnier (1940-)

Gérard Régnier, Les chemins détournés, roman, Paris, Gallimard, 1962.
Le voyageur égoïste, carnets de voyage 1978-1988, Paris, Plon, coll. ” Carnets “, 1989.
Onze chansons puériles, numérotées par Pierre Alechinsky (1927-), Caen, l’Échoppe, 1990.

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Elmer Ernest Southard (1876-1920)

” Mlle de l’escalier ” [novelette, dictée le 17 novembre 1916], dans Frederick P. Gay, The Open Mind. Elmer Ernest Southard 1876-1920, Chicago, Normandie House, 1938.

Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven, dite The Baroness, née Elsa Hildegard Ploetz (1874-1927)

” Portrait de Marcel Duchamp “, The Little Review, New York, vol. 9, n° 2, hiver 1922.

Henrie Waste, pseud. d’Henrietta, dite Ettie, Stettheimer (1874-1955)

[1976, livre] Sarane Alexandrian (1927-)

Le déconcerto, contes, Paris, Galilée, coll. ” Ligne fictive “, 1980.
L’aventure en soi, autobiographie, Paris, Mercure de France, 1990.
Le grand astrosophe, roman, Paris, Losfeld, 1994.

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Elmer Ernest Southard (1876-1920)

” Mlle de l’escalier ” [novelette, dictée le 17 novembre 1916], dans Frederick P. Gay, The Open Mind. Elmer Ernest Southard 1876-1920, Chicago, Normandie House, 1938.

Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven, dite The Baroness, née Elsa Hildegard Ploetz (1874-1927)

” Portrait de Marcel Duchamp “, The Little Review, New York, vol. 9, n° 2, hiver 1922.

Henrie Waste, pseud. d’Henrietta, dite Ettie, Stettheimer (1874-1955)

Récits tremblants, avec Jacques Monory (1934-), Paris, Galilée, 1977.
Le mur du Pacifique, récit, Paris, Galilée, coll. ” Ligne fictive “, 1979.
L’histoire de Ruth, avec Ruth Francken (1924-), Talence, le Castor astral, coll. ” Le mot et la forme “, 1983.

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Elmer Ernest Southard (1876-1920)

” Mlle de l’escalier ” [novelette, dictée le 17 novembre 1916], dans Frederick P. Gay, The Open Mind. Elmer Ernest Southard 1876-1920, Chicago, Normandie House, 1938.

Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven, dite The Baroness, née Elsa Hildegard Ploetz (1874-1927)

” Portrait de Marcel Duchamp “, The Little Review, New York, vol. 9, n° 2, hiver 1922.

Henrie Waste, pseud. d’Henrietta, dite Ettie, Stettheimer (1874-1955)

[1977, article; 1984, livre] André Gervais (1947-)

Trop plein pollen, poèmes, revue Les Herbes rouges, Montréal, n° 23, 1974.
Hom storm grom suivi de Pré prisme aire urgence, poèmes, Montréal, Éd. de l’Aurore, coll. ” Lecture en vélocipède “, 1975.
Du muscle astérisque, proses, revue La Nouvelle Barre du jour, Montréal, série ” Auteur / e “, n° 180, 1986.
La nuit se lève, poèmes et proses, avec un tableau de Bruno Santerre. Saint-Lambert, Éd. du Noroît, 1990.

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Elmer Ernest Southard (1876-1920)

” Mlle de l’escalier ” [novelette, dictée le 17 novembre 1916], dans Frederick P. Gay, The Open Mind. Elmer Ernest Southard 1876-1920, Chicago, Normandie House, 1938.

Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven, dite The Baroness, née Elsa Hildegard Ploetz (1874-1927)

” Portrait de Marcel Duchamp “, The Little Review, New York, vol. 9, n° 2, hiver 1922.

Henrie Waste, pseud. d’Henrietta, dite Ettie, Stettheimer (1874-1955)

click to enlarge

Cover of Littérature,
André Breton (ed.), N° 5, 1er October, 1922

Robert Desnos (1900-1945)

Rrose Sélavy, [written October 1922-1923] [aphorisms]. Published in part in Littérature, new series: no. 7 (Paris, December 1, 1922); published in part (but with variation) in Corps et biens. Paris: Gallimard, 1930; coll. “Poésie / Gallimard.”

Robert Lebel

[La double vue [written from November 1922 to December 1923]. In Corps et biens. Paris: Gallimard, 1930; coll. “Poésie / Gallimard.”

click to enlarge

Robert Lebel, La Double
Vue, Paris: Le Soleil noir, 1964

* Michel Butor

Passage de Milan ⁽⁷⁾, [written 1950-1951] [novel]. Paris: Minuit, 1954; coll. “10 / 18.”

* Henri Pierre Roché

Victor, [written 1957] [novel, left unfinished]. Critical edition by Danielle Régnier-Bohler, preface and notes by Jean Clair. Paris: Centre Georges Pompidou, 1977.

* Jean Suquet

” Le scorpion et la rose. Paris: Bourgois, 1970.

Tom Stoppard, pseud. de Thomas Straussler (1937-)

Artist Descending A Staircase [play]. Performed for the first time on the airwaves of the BBC, November 14, 1972; in Artist Descending A Staircase and Where Are They Now?, two plays for radio. London: Faber and Faber, 1973; Artiste descendant un escalier, adaptation in French by Élisabeth Janvier. Martel: Éd. du Laquet, coll. “Théâtre en poche,” 1998.

click to enlarge

Henri Pierre Roché. Victor, vol. 4
of the four-volume publication
issued for the exhibition “L’Oeuvre de Marcel Duchamp,”
31 January – 2 May, 1977.
Paris: Centre Georges Pompidou

Claude Simon (1913-)

Triptyque, Paris: Minuit, 1973; Triptych. Translated by Helen R. Lane. New York: Viking Press, 1976.

Alain Robbe-Grillet (1922-)

Topologie d’une cité fantôme ⁽⁸⁾, [novel]. Paris: Minuit, 1976; Topology of a Phantom City. Translated by J. A. Underwood. New York: Grove Press, 1977.
Le miroir qui revient ⁽⁹⁾, Paris: Minuit, 1984; Ghosts in the Mirror. Translated by Jo Levy. London: J. Calder, 1988.

Jacques Charlier (…-)

Rrose Melody, Liège: Association Art Promotion, 1977..

Bryan Ferry (…-)

The Bride Stripped Bare, [record]. EMI, 1978; [compact disc]. Virgin 47606-2 (distributed by EMI).

* Michel Leiris

Le ruban au cou d’Olympia, Paris: Gallimard, 1981.

Jean-François Vilar (1948-)

Le ruban au cou d’Olympia, Paris: Fayard, 1982; Paris: Éd. J’ai lu, coll. “Policier.”

[1977, livre] Jennifer Gough-Cooper (…-) & Jacques Caumont (…-)

Rrose, sa vie sans cachotteries dépeinte […], [epic poem]. 1150 verses. Hautot-le-Vatois (Normandy, France): Académie de Muséologie Évocatoire, 1985.

Michel Waldberg (1940-)

La boîte verte, Éd. de la Différence, 1995.

Walter Henry, pseud. de Paul Braffort (…-)

Chu dans mer sale ou La rumination polymorphe. Paris: la Bibliothèque oulipienne, no. 86, 1997.

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3.Those who have published a literary work (novel, short story, poem, etc.) “in honor of” or “in partial honor of” Marcel Duchamp or his work;
Note: Names preceded by an asterisk have already been listed in Section I.

Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven

” Love – chemical relationship” [poem]. Dedicated to Marcel Duchamp. In The Little Review, vol. 5, no. 2 (New York, June 1918).
” Mefk Maru Mustir Daas ” [poem]. Dedicated to Marcel Duchamp. In The Little Review, vol. 5, no. 8 (New York, December 1918).

Francis Picabia

Pensées sans langage, [written from October (?) 1918 to March 1919] [poem in book form]. Dedicated thus: “Chers amis Gabrielle Buffet, Ribemont-Dessaignes, Marcel Duchamp, Tristan Tzara, je vous dédie ce poème en raison de notre sympathie élective.” (“My dear friends Gabrielle Buffet, Ribemont-Dessaignes, Marcel Duchamp, Tristan Tzara, I dedicate this poem to you because of our elective sympathy.”). Paris: Eugène Figuière, 1919; Écrits, Volume I: 1913-1920. Paris: Belfond, coll. “Les bâtisseurs du XXe siècle,” 1975.

* André Breton

” À Rrose Sélavy “, [poem]. In Clair de terre. Paris: coll. “Littérature,” 1923; Earthlight, translated by Bill Zavatsky and Zack Rogow. Los Angeles: Sun & Moon Press, 1993.

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Pierre de Massot.
The Wonderful Book. Reflections on
Rrose Sélavy (1924), in Étant donné
Marcel Duchamp, n° 2, (Baby [France] February 2000),
pp. 97~120

* Pierre de Massot

” Mode d’emploi ” [written June 8, 1923] [poem]. Dedicated to Rrose Sélavy: “pour Rrose Sélavy”]. In Poésie 1, no. 23: Jacques Baron, Pierre de Massot, Philippe Soupault: trois poètes surréalistes (Paris, March 1972); Étant donné Marcel Duchamp, no. 2, (Baby [France], February 2000).”Jeu du ‘dans’ ” [written in early 1950’s (?)] [poem]. Dedicated to Marcel Duchamp: “pour Marcel Duchamp “. In Poésie 1, no. 23: Jacques Baron, Pierre de Massot, Philippe Soupault: trois poètes surréalistes, (Paris, March 1972); Étant donné Marcel Duchamp, no. 2, (Baby [France], February 2000).
The Wonderful Book. Reflections on Rrose Sélavy, Paris: hors commerce [Imprimerie Ravilly], s.d. [1924]; Étant donné Marcel Duchamp, no. 2, (Baby [France], February 2000).
5 poëmes [written from 1931 to 1946] [poems]. Dedicated to Marcel Duchamp : “À Marcel Duchamp.” With a portrait of the author by Francis Picabia. Paris: hors commerce [Imprimerie Gaschet et Cie], 1946.

Louis Aragon (1897-1985)

” La force ” [poem]. Dedicated to Marcel Duchamp: “à Marcel Duchamp.” In Le mouvement perpétuel (poems 1921-1924). Paris: Gallimard, 1926.

Georges Hugnet (1906-1974)

Marcel Duchamp [written November 8, 1939] [poem]. With a frontispiece by Marcel Duchamp. Paris: hors commerce, 1941.

Kay Boyle (1902-1992)

Avalanche, [novel]. Dedicated in English and in French: “To Monsieur and Madame Rrose Sélavy .” New York: Simon and Schuster, 1944.
” A complaint for Mary and Marcel.” In Collected poems. Port Townsend (Wa): Copper Canyon Press, 1970..

Henri-François Rey (1919-1987)

Les pianos mécaniques, [written (in Cadaquès) from March 1961 to February 1962]⁽¹⁰⁾[novel]. Paris: Laffont, 1962; coll. “Le livre de poche”; The Mechanical Pianos. Translated by Peter Wiles. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1965.

David Young (1946-)

Agent provocateur, n[novel]. Dedicated in English: “For Marcel Duchamp.” Toronto: Coach House Press, 1976.

***********************

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André Breton, Au Lavoir
noir, Paris: Éditions G.L.M, 1936

4. Literary works “illustrated” by Marcel Duchamp (alone or in collaboration) or by Marcel Duchamp and another artist.
Note: Names preceded by an asterisk have already been listed in Section I.

Alfred Jarry (1873-1907)

Ubu roi [1896], Paris: Fasquelle, 1921; Reliure pour “Ubu roi” d’Alfred Jarry [1935]. Designed by Marcel Duchamp and created by Mary Reynolds. Ubu roi [drama in five acts]. Translated by Barbara Wright. London: Gaberbocchus P., 1966; Ubu Rex. Translated by David Copelin. Vancouver: Pulp Press, 1977; in Three Pre-Surrealist Plays. Translated with an introduction and notes by Maya Slater. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.

* André Breton

Au lavoir noir, [poem]. With a window by Marcel Duchamp. Paris: GLM, coll. “Repères,” [January] 1936; Illustration pour “Au lavoir noir” d’André Breton (1935).
Young Cherry Trees Secured Against Hares / Jeunes cerisiers garantis contre les lièvres [selection of poems]. Translated by Édouard Roditi, with drawings by Arshile Gorky. New York: View Editions, [March or April] 1946; Couverture pour “Young Cherry Trees Secured Against Hares” d’André Breton (1945-1946).

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André Breton, Young Cherry
Trees Secured against Hares, Edward Roditi (trans.), New York:
View Editions, 1946

Georges Hugnet

La septième face du dé,[poems, paper cutouts]. Cover cigarettes by Marcel Duchamp. Paris: Éd. Jeanne Bucher, [May] 1936; Couverture pour “La septième face du dé” de Georges Hugnet (1936).
Marcel Duchamp [written November 8, 1939] [poem]. With a frontispiece by Marcel Duchamp. Paris: hors commerce, 1941; Moustache et barbe de L.H.O.O.Q. (1941).
Hebdomeros, Paris: Éd. du Carrefour, 1929; Reliure pour “Hebdomeros” de Giorgio de Chirico (1936-1939). Designed by Marcel Duchamp and created by Mary Reynolds.

Francis Picabia

L’équilibre, [written in 1917] [poem]. With an engraving by Marcel Duchamp. Alès: PAB, [August] 1958.

Pierre-André Benoit (1921-1993)

Première lumière, [poem]. With an engraving by Marcel Duchamp. Alès: PAB, [August] 1959.

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Georges Hugnet, La septiéme
face du dé, Paris: Éditions Jeanne Bucher, 1936

Georges Hugnet, Marcel Duchamp,
a poem and front piece with
Moustache et barbe de L.H.O.O.Q.
(1941) by Duchamp, Paris:
Hors Commerce, 1941

*Pierre de Massot

Tiré à quatre épingles, [poems]. With an engraving by Marcel Duchamp. Alès: PAB, [Summer] 1959.

Marcel Duchamp. Propos et souvenirs, With a rectified readymade, in color, by Marcel Duchamp. Milan: chez Arturo Schwarz, 1965; L.H.O.O.Q. (replica, September 1964); Étant donné Marcel Duchamp, no. 2 (Baby [France] February 2000).

* Arturo Schwarz

Il Reale Assoluto, [poems]. In Italian. With eleven lithographies by Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray. Milan: Galleria Schwarz, 1964; Certificat de lecture (February-March 1964).

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Pierre-André Benoit, Première
lumière, Alès: PAB, 1959
Pierre de Massot, Tiré
à quatre épingles, Alès: PAB, 1959

* Robert Lebel

La double vue suivi de L’inventeur du temps gratuit, With an etched diptych by Alberto Giacometti and a folding by Marcel Duchamp (in the first 111 exemplary copies), with an etching by Ferró (in the next 150 exemplary copies). Paris: le Soleil noir, 1964; La pendule de profil (1964).

E-mail André Gervais with suggestions and comments: Andre_Gervais@uqar.uquebec.ca

Notes

1. This retrospective contains Mont de piété [1919, with two drawings by André Derain], Clair de terre [1923, with a portrait by Pablo Picasso], L’union libre [1931], Le revolver à cheveux blancs [1932, with an etching by Salvador Dali], Violette Nozières [1933], L’air de l’eau [1934, with four engravings by Alberto Giacometti] and Au lavoir noir [1936, with a window by Marcel Duchamp].

2. This retrospective contains [Poèmes 1935-1940], Pleine marge [1943, with an etching by Kurt Seligmann], Fata morgana [1941, with four drawings by Wilfredo Lam], [Poèmes 1940-1943], Les états généraux [1944], Des épingles tremblantes [1948], Xénophiles [1948], Ode à Charles Fourier [1947], Oubliés [1948], Constellations [1959, with 22 gouaches by Juan Miró] and Le la [1961, with a lithograph by Jean Benoît].

3. This retrospective contains, in whole or in part, the following brief, small books: Soliloque de Nausicaa [1928, with five drawings by Jean Cocteau], 5 poëmes [1946, with a portrait of the author by Francis Picabia], Orestie [1949], Mot clé des mensonges [1954], Galets abandonnés sur la page [1958, with an etching by Jacques Villon] and Tiré à quatre épingles [1959, with an engraving by Marcel Duchamp], to which is added Prison de neige, poems written from 1960 to 1961.

4. This recent retrospective adds to the preceding several other poems as well as a study and a biography.

5. This retrospective contains the following books: Simulacre [1925], Le point cardinal [1927], Glossaire: j’y serre mes gloses [1939 (begun in 1925), with some lithographies by André Masson], Bagatelles végétales [1956, with six engravings by Juan Miró] and Marrons sculptés pour Miró [1961, with a color lithograph by Juan Miró]. The Glossaire… has a continuation: Langage tangage ou Ce que les mots me disent [Paris: Gallimard, 1985].

6. On the jacket flap: “Manuscripts chosen by scissor cuts, photographs most often in black and white, articles lost among dead papers, dialogues in person, winking at some friends, retracing the voyage without a clock or a compass.”

7. Michel Butor, during the discussion following the paper of Patrice Quéréel on this book, as part of a colloquium on Butor’s work (June 24 – July 1, 1973), made this clear: “In regard to that which concerns the ideological machinery of State, I have been constantly reminded, while listening to you, of Marcel Duchamp: there was in the way you see these institutions the model of the Large Glass by Marcel Duchamp who is evoked in various manners in this book.” This in Butor. Colloque de Cerisy, under the direction of Georges Raillard, (Paris: UGÉ [coll. “10 / 18,” no. 902] 1974), p. 84.

8. Georges Raillard, in “Mots de passe. Quelques notes prises au cours d’une traversée difficile: La belle captive [1976],” (Obliques, Les Pilles, no. 16-17, Robbe-Grillet, 4th Quarter 1978), quotes the dedication from the author on an exemplary copy of Topologie…: ” quelque chose comme mon Grand Verre .” [“Something like my Large Glass. “]

9. Georges Raillard calls “Le Grand Verre de Robbe-Grillet ” [La Quinzaine littéraire, no. 432, (Paris, January 16-31, 1985)] his critique of the first volume of this “robbegrilletian autobiography,” of which the general title is Romanesques.

10. This novel contains only a brief allusion to Duchamp who, from 1958 to 1968, spent one or more months in the spring or summer in this catalan village.

Bicycles With Elephant Memories Stolen From Our Oasis When We Were The Most Thirsty

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A PERFORMANCE FOR NEW YORK CITY
(Sunday April 30th, 2000)

In the April of this year artist, Patrick Grenier performed a new work on the streets of New York City which converged several ideas about memory, loss, vulnerability and reconciliation. The concept was inspired by Duchamp’s sculpture,Large Glass; a poem by Alfred Jarry titled, The Passion Considered as a Bicycle Race; Grenier’s observation of a thief carrying Duchamp’s modified readymadeBicycle Wheel just stolen from the Museum of Modern Art in 1995, over the Brooklyn Bridge; conversations he had with Duchamp’s last assistant, Robert Barnes; the theft of three of his own bicycles; and his interest in the ability of elephants to remember things over a long period of time. The idea of bicycles possessing elephant memories alludes to the idea that possessions are imbibed with the owner’s energies and when that item is taken, its spirit stays with you, as he believes your own spirit leaves with the object stolen.

Grenier along with two other performers rode on vintage bicycles, similar in design to the one drawn on the page of sheet music in Duchamp’s 1914 drawing To Have the Apprentice in the Sun, from the front square of the Brooklyn Museum to the Museum of Modern Art making a total of twelve stops at locations related to the artist for on-site short action performances. The cyclists wore stylized costumes inspired by the work of Duchamp, Jarry and the physiognomy of elephants. Some of the props for the on-site actions included, a bicycle made of thorn branches, a unique chess board with pieces derived from peanut forms and bicycle parts, shadows of bicycles cut out of black velvet, melted chocolate and raw peanuts.

Bicycles are powered by human engines. Muscles and bones work with rubber and metal to become one machine.

CREDITS:

Cyclists:
Patrick Grenier as “Peanut”
Mary Noll as “Padlock”
Claire Pertalion as “Bicycle Wheel”
Video:
Drew Cerria
8mm FILM:
Michael DeRoker
35mm Stills:
Laura Moss
Driver:
Julio Lopez
Production Assistant:
Tia Shin
Photographs:
Laura Moss

Dreaming with Open Eyes:The Vera, Silvia and Arturo Schwarz Collection of Dada and Surrealist Art at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem

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Marcel Duchamp, Why
Not Sneeze Rrose Sélavy?
, 1921/1964 © 2000
Succession Marcel
Duchamp, ARS, N.Y./ADAGP, Paris

.
. . . and may I, who am still searching for something in this world,
be left with open eyes, or with closed eyes in broad daylight,
to my silent contemplation.
André Breton, Le surréalisme et la peinture, 1928

The vast collection of works donated by the Milanese scholar, poet, and collector Arturo Schwarz as a gift to the Israel Museum at the beginning of 1998 was an offering of unique scope and importance. Consisting of about 750 works by approximately 200 artists in a variety of styles and techniques, the Vera, Silvia, and Arturo Schwarz Collection of Dada and Surrealist Art constitutes the major part of the total collection amassed by Arturo Schwarz. (The other parts are to be found in the National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome and the Tel Aviv Museum of Art.) This is one of the world’ s greatest collections of Dada and Surrealist art, and since its addition to the Museum’s existing holdings, which include the collector’s extensive library, the Israel Museum has become a global center for the study and display of these two seminal movements in modern art.*

Arturo Schwarz’ s connection with the Israel Museum began in 1972, when he gave the museum a set of thirteen replicas of Marcel Duchamp’s readymades. During the Gulf War of 1991, he decided to donate most of his collection and his entire library to the Israel Museum, and already in 1992 we received the vast library containing more than a thousand items, including limited-edition books, many with original prints, and full runs of Dada and Surrealist periodicals, as well as documents, manifestos, and Schwarz’ s extensive personal correspondence with the movements’ leading figures.

Arturo Schwarz was born in 1924 in Alexandria, Egypt, to Jewish parents: a German father and an Italian mother. In his youth, he was very active in clandestine political circles. At first he was affiliated with the Zionist movement and spent several months on a kibbutz in Palestine; later he became involved in a Trotskyist group in Alexandria. At the same time Schwarz made the acquaintance of the Egyptian Surrealists and from 1945 to 1948 ran a publishing company and a bookstore. Arrested several times for his political activities, he was expelled from the country in 1949. He settled in Milan, where he founded another publishing house and, at the beginning of the 1950s, opened a bookstore which later developed into Galleria Schwarz, which closed in 1975. The gallery held exhibitions of the best Dada and Surrealist artists and of contemporary artists throughout the world. Simultaneously, Schwarz wrote poetry, published scholarly books such as a catalogue raisonné of the works of Marcel Duchamp, gave lectures and organized international Dada and Surrealist exhibitions. His intense involvement in the Surrealist movement and his personal acquaintance with many of its members made him a leading authority on its history.

Arturo Schwarz wrote that “Dada was the first movement in the history of art to liberate the creative process from the shackles of rules and academisms . . . and in Surrealism I discovered a philosophy of life whose cardinal points – love, freedom and poetry – coincided with my own. I have thus never seen myself as an ‘art collector’ but rather as a convinced Surrealist, keen to acquire the works which were inspired by my own convictions.” Indeed, the imprint of his life and personality is manifest in the collection he assembled for years, and the personal portrait reflected in it reveals a combination of two seemingly opposite forces: a romantic-surrealistic vision of imagination, dreams, and love is countered by the critical eye of a scholar and historian who wishes to investigate, to document, and to explain. On the one hand, there is a passion for collection and a spirit of adventure; on the other, methodical assemblage and scholarly classification. Schwarz’s deep conviction that Surrealism is not only an artistic-stylistic trend but a universal spiritual and ideological manifestation that seeks “to break the habit of looking at things in the same way, to revolutionize our vision” is evident in his desire to capture and document every cultural, geographical, and historical aspect of the phenomenon. Thus, his collection contains oil paintings alongside photographic portraits, and books of poetry next to documents, representing a range from Europe to South America and from the sixteenth century to the present. His selection disregards both conventional aesthetic distinctions and any accepted hierarchy of major and secondary works or important and unimportant artists. The result is an encyclopedic cultural mosaic that is impressive and astonishing, especially if one takes into account that it is the lifework of a single individual. Schwarz has explained his criteria by saying, “It is not physical beauty that interests me; it is spiritual beauty and the idea behind it, and when it is strong enough it becomes physical beauty, but not the other way round.”

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Marcel Duchamp, Female Fig
Leaf, 1950/1951 © 2000 Succession Marcel
Duchamp, ARS, N.Y./ADAGP, Paris

At the end of the year 2000, the Museum will present a major sampling of the Vera, Silvia, and Arturo Schwarz Collection to the public for the first time. Combining Schwarz’s insight and personal approach to collecting with a museological, historical presentation of Dada and Surrealist art, the exhibition Dreaming with Open Eyes will feature 350 representative works in a variety of techniques – paintings, drawings, collages, prints, photographs, sculptures, and readymades – along with dozens of items from the unique library of periodicals, documents, and books. A short introductory film presents the life story of Arturo Schwarz through personal photographs and excerpts from interviews. Using contemporary design language, the exhibition conveys the radical spirit of these two movements. Occupying several galleries, it is arranged by topic as well as in historical order, largely reflecting the main divisions of the original collection.

“Dada Doesn’t Mean Anything”
The Dada movement, which came into being in Europe and the United States in protest at the horrors of the First World War, rebelled against artistic convention and sought to subvert the existing social and political order. The works exhibited, whose main source is the legacy of one of the leaders of Dada, Tristan Tzara, represent the oeuvre of such major artists as Marcel Janco, Jean Arp, Raoul Hausmann, Max Ernst, Francis Picabia, and Kurt Schwitters. Mainly drawings and collages, they exemplify typical elements of Dada: the accidental, the absurd, protest, and criticism. The Dadaists’ desire to fuse life and art and to embrace all areas of creativity is reflected in the accompanying display of their radical periodicals and manifestos, together with excerpts from the early films of Hans Richter.

The Chess Players: Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray
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The revolutionary work of Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray had a profound influence on Dada and Surrealist artists and on later trends in twentieth-century art. Arturo Schwarz began to correspond with Marcel Duchamp in the early 1950s and through him made the acquaintance of Man Ray. He demonstrated his deep appreciation of these two artists and his devotion to them by arranging exhibitions, producing series of readymades, acquiring dozens of their works and writing authoritative scholarly books about them. The seventy works by these two artists in the exhibition, which demonstrate their conceptual approach and bear witness to their fertile imaginations, are replete with irreverence, iconoclasm, humor, playfulness, sexuality, and eroticism.

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Marcel Duchamp, In
the Manner of Delvaux, 1942
© 2000 Succession Marcel Duchamp,
ARS, N.Y./ADAGP, Paris

“Pure Psychic Automatism”: Surrealism
The ideologues of the Surrealist movement, whose conceptual platform was formulated by André Breton in the First Surrealist Manifesto of 1924, wished to develop patterns of thought and expression which would lay bare an inner irrational and subconscious reality like that revealed in dreams, psychoanalysis, and the drawings of children and the insane. Surrealist artists experimented with automatism as a basic principle of random and unmediated creativity, and with illusory dream images in fantastic forms and surprising combinations. In this part of the exhibition, there is a rich collection of more than a hundred works from various periods. Among the artists exhibited are some of the members of the original circle of the Surrealist movement in the 1920s and ’30s, such as André Breton, Joan Miró, Yves Tanguy, André Masson, and Max Ernst, and others who were influenced by it and joined after the Second World War, like Victor Brauner, Wifredo Lam, and Matta. A prominent place is occupied by women artists like Claude Cahun, Remedios Varo, Kay Sage, Dorothea Tanning, and Meret Oppenheim. The works on show illustrate the variety of methods used by the artists to liberate their imaginations from the domination of the critical consciousness, ranging from automatic drawing, collage, and photomontage to collective drawings, dream pictures, and assemblage.

“The Sleep of Reason”: Forerunners of Surrealism
From the very beginning of the Surrealist movement, writers and artists turned to the works of the past for inspiration and affirmation. In art and literature, they did, in fact, find evidence of a timeless interest in dreams, the supernatural, the magical, and the irrational. In the art of the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and the Baroque, these elements were to be found in such subjects as the Apocalypse, monsters, alchemical symbols, scenes of temptation, and erotica, and in grotesque and hybrid images. From the beginning of Romanticism in the eighteenth century to the Symbolist movement in the nineteenth, the taste for fantasy and the irrational grew stronger: the industrial era gave rise to anxiety and to a longing for a mystical, otherworldly experience. Like Breton and others, Arturo Schwarz assembled examples of pre-Surrealist works characterized, as he said, by “their spiritual attitude toward the marvelous – as well as their subversive element.” This variegated collection includes paintings, prints, and drawings dating from the sixteenth to the twentieth century by artists such as Dürer, Goya, Moreau, and Redon, along with tribal masks and artifacts from Africa, Oceania, and North America.

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Marcel Duchamp, Cheminée
anaglyphe (Anaglyphic Chimney)
and related
material, 1968 © 2000
Succession Marcel Duchamp,
ARS, N.Y./ADAGP,Paris

Talking Heads:
The Library Portraits of Surrealist artists and writers immortalized by their photographer and painter colleagues constitute a separate section, which Arturo Schwarz calls “memorabilia.” These works have a special value, apart from their documentary and historical importance, in that they shed light on the personal relationship between the artist who depicts and the person depicted. The collection of portraits is combined with a selection of Dada and Surrealist books illustrated with original prints. There are also artists’ books in special editions by Max Ernst, Man Ray, Masson, Picabia, and others, and books produced jointly by pairs of artists like Tristan Tzara and Jean Arp, Benjamin Péret and Yves Tanguy, Robert Desnos and Pablo Picasso, and Paul Eluard and Man Ray. The collaboration between artists manifested in these portraits and books illustrates the intellectual ferment of Surrealism and the spiritual bond that existed among the members of the movement.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a comprehensive 250-page catalogue, which includes an illustrated inventory of all the works in the Vera, Silvia, and Arturo Schwarz Collection in the Israel Museum. An exploration of a perennially fascinating subject, Dreaming with Open Eyes promises to be one of the Museum’s most important and enlightening exhibitions as we begin the new millennium.

* For more on the collector and his gifts to the Israel Museum, see The Israel Museum Journal XVI (1998): 61-70.

Installation
views of the exhibition’s Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray section

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The Vera, Silvia and Arturo Schwarz Collection of Dada and Surrealist
Art, Israel Museum, Israel, 2000

Marcel Duchamp –Étant donnés: Det Dekonstruerede Maleri (The Deconstructed Painting)

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 kunstens og kunstinstitutionens indercirkler, men mindre kendt i de mere perifere kunstinteresserede cirkler. En af årsagerne hertil er nok at Duchamps livsværk er ret begrænset i omfang og at størstedelen af hans værker desuden er samlet på et enkelt museum i Philadelphia, U.S.A. Dette betyder at det for eksempel ikke er muligt at studere nogle af Duchamps værker i original (eller replica) noget sted i Danmark.

Derimod er Picassos navn kendt af næsten enhver. Malerierne flød fra Picassos hånd, og ethvert moderne museum med respekt for sig selv har Picasso repræsenteret ved et eller flere værker. Virtuost valfarter Picasso gennem modernismens mange ismer, og menneskeskikkelsen forbliver et vedvarende udgangspunkt for hovedparten af hans malerier. Men selvom Picasso aldrig abstraherer sig fuldstændigt fra virkeligheden, så er hans kunst dog alligevel næsten ensbetydende med det moderne, abstrakte maleri. For Picasso abstraherer sig, gennem diverse stilarter, fra virkelighedens motiver, og gør selve maleriet, eller stilen, til det egentlige motiv.

Duchamp var også oprindeligt maler, og ligesom Picasso har han valfartet gennem diverse af modernismens mange maleriske ismer. Fauvisme, kubisme og futurisme er betegnelser som kan tilknyttes Duchamps tidlige malerier. Og ligesom for Picassos vedkommende er menneskeskikkelsen næsten altid i fokus, som motiv eller udgangspunkt, for hans tidlige malerier og senere værker. Men Duchamp ender med at eller vende ryggen til maleriet. For i stedet for at abstrahere sig fra motivet – som hovedparten af Duchamps malerkolleger er i færd med – abstraherer Duchamp sig fra maleriets grundplan (og dermed fra kunsten som den traditionelt er blevet forstået).

Étant donnés (dansk:det Givne) er Duchamps sidste større værk. Det er fremstillet i hemmelighed i en årrække efter 2. verdenskrig – fra 1946 til 1966 – og blev efter Duchamps død i 1968 permanent installeret på Philadelphia Museum of Art, i Philadelphia, U.S.A. Étant donnés må derfor kunne ses som Duchamps kunstneriske testamente, hans konklusion på kunsten. Værkets gamle trædør, Étant donnés umiddelbare “facade”, møder beskueren i et lille rum bagved det store lyse udstillingsrum, hvor museets øvrige Duchamp-værker er at finde. Det lille rum er en slags “blindtarm” på det store rum – det er ikke et gennemgangsrum, og indeholder ved første øjekast blot døren – bag hvilken den øvrige del af værket er installeret. Når man træder ind i det lille rum og kigger til venstre, ser man en stukkeret mur, der udstrækker sig fra gulv til loft og fra væg til væg. I centrum af denne stukvæg er en stor buet murstensdørkarm, der danner rammen om den gamle trædør. Det er tydeligt at døren ikke kan åbnes, men i midten af døren, ved øjenhøjde, er to små kighuller⁽¹⁾.

Værket var udgangspunkt for mit cand. phil. speciale, og denne artikel kan ses som en kort introduktion til de teser, problemer og konklusioner jeg rejser i relation til Duchamps Étant donnés. Jeg tog udgangspunkt i værkets fysiske fremtrædelsesform, og anvendte hertil de skitser af værket som den franske filosof Jean-François Lyotard har fremstillet til sin bog Les TRANS formateurs Duchamp.

Figure 2
viser et tværsnit af perspektivkassekonstruktionen
Étant donnés

Illustrationen er oprindeligt fremstillet af Lyotard, men benævnelserne på de forskellige niveauer af Étant donnés er tilføjet af denne artikels forfatter. Jeg vil her især fremhæve afsnittet om billedplanet, da mange facts tyder på at netop dette niveau af værket er meget væsentligt⁽²⁾. I afsnittet om billedplanet undersøger jeg først det historiske billedplan og den særlige status, som maleriet erhverver i renæssancen. Derefter undersøger jeg billedplanets status i den moderne epoke, hvor maleriet frigør sig fra sin tidligere bundethed til historie, litteratur, rum og motiv m.v. Derefter vender jeg tilbage til det billedplan som Duchamp har nedbrudt i Étant donnés, samt til de værker der relaterer sig til denne nedbrydning.

Mit udgangspunkt for overhovedet at fokusere på Duchamps Étant donnés i første omgang, opstod oprindeligt i forbindelse med mine studier af optik og perspektiv. Derfor kan min afhandling også ses i relation til den debat der har cirkuleret omkring perspektivet og spørgsmålene om perspektivets objektivitet. I modsætning til blandt andre Norman Bryson, opskriver jeg med Duchamp det perspektiviske blik, the Gaze, og jeg de-konstruerer i relation hertil den klassiske perspektivkonstruktion.

En anden årsag til min interesse for netop dette værk udspringer af værkets negative status. Duchamp-forskerne har ofte ignoreret værket, eller ofret det mindre opmærksomhed end for eksempel the Large Glass (dansk: det Store Glas). I modsætning til mange af Duchamp forskerne – anser jeg Étant donnés for at være Duchamps mesterværk. Ja, – jeg ser værket som en af kunsthistoriens mesterværker. Det er et af de mest udfordrende kunstværker der overhovedet findes – med egne ord: “the most thrilling work of art”⁽³⁾.

Værket udformer sig ikke bare som en konklusion på Duchamps livsværk. Det kan også ses som en konklusion på kunstens tilstand i det 20. århundrede – i mere generel forstand. Étant donnés er – i forhold til the Large Glass – langt nærmere på det fuldkomne anti-kunstværk. For i Étant donnés lykkes det for Duchamp at fremstille et værk der ikke er et kunstværk (a work which is not a work of “art”) – eller rettere sagt – så lykkes det der ser ud til at være Duchamps livslange projekt endelig til fuldkommenhed med dette værk. Og dette paradoksale projekt synes at gå ud på at fremstille et billede uden billedplan, eller et maleri uden lærred, hvilket er præcis det modsatte af hvad Duchamps samtidige malerkolleger er i færd med. (Duchamps samtidige malerkolleger, for eksempel Picasso, abstraherer i stigende grad deres malerier fra det traditionelle motiv. De favoriserer billedplanet eller det todimensionale lærred på bekostning af perspektiv og rum(illusion). I modsætning hertil kan man sige at Duchamp favoriserer “perspektivet” – eller det perspektiviske blik, the gaze – på bekostning af billedplanet eller lærredet.

En readymade kan i relation hertil ses som et motiv der ikke er omsat i mediet kunst. I relation til maleri kan en readymade sammenstilles med et realistisk perspektivmaleri eller et fotografi. Mange af disse readymades har da også en frontalitet, der appellerer til et fotografisk blik.⁽⁴⁾

Projektets begyndelsesfase kan allerede studeres i the Large Glass – hvis gennemsigtige glas-billedplan næsten er forsvundet. Den er der dog stadigvæk som grundplan for værkets nedlagte figurer eller formationer. For beskueren ser ikke blot igennem the Large Glass, men må også samtidig se på glasset. Der er derfor stadig meget af Duchamps gamle malerier i the Large Glass og billedplanet er endnu ikke fuldt ud negeret⁽⁵⁾.

click to enlarge

Large Glass, der
blev fremstillet i årene 1915-23.
Her er det fotograferet i Katherine
Dreiers dagligstue.

Derimod er “maleriets” billedplan i bogstaveligste forstand forsvundet i Étant donnés, hvor Duchamp først bygger værkets billedplan op som en mørk mur – for derefter at nedbryde eller negere den.

Men hvorfor har Duchamp følt denne trang til at negere billedplanet? Hvad er meningen? Og er der ikke mange andre betydningsfulde “detaljer” at studere i værket? Jo, det er der naturligvis, men jeg holder på at denne “detalje”, denne nedbrydning af billedplanet – som oftest overses – idet man har set “igennem” billedplanet eller værket – faktisk er værkets vigtigste “detalje” og Duchamps hovedformål med værket.

Når jeg kalder Étant donnés for et dekonstrueret maleri, så er det en henvisning til den konstruktion, Étant donnés, ved hvis hjælp Duchamp dekonstruerer en anden konstruktion – tydeligst det traditionelle perspektivmaleri. I et sådant maleri er lagene eller niveauerne lagt ovenpå hinanden, så de “smelter” sammen til et niveau, der materialiserer sig ved hjælp af billedplanet. Når man betragter et sådant perspektivmaleri vil man på et mere illusionistisk plan opleve at billedet udvider sig bagved planet, bag “Albertis vindue”, og der blotlægger – om ikke altid et realistisk virkelighedsbillede – så dog noget der har et temmelig overbevisende realismepræg. Det abstrakte maleri kan ikke dekonstrueres på samme bogstavelige måde som perspektivmaleriet kan – idet den “rumlighed”, som det abstrakte maleri – trods sin tilstræbte fladhed – ofte postulerer, er af en mere “åndelig” eller “usynlig” art. Alligevel vil jeg påstå at det abstrakte maleri i allerhøjeste grad indgår som et “led” eller en “side” af dette dekonstruerede maleri, dette visuelle opslagsværk⁽⁶⁾. Faktisk er det som om det netop er udviklingen af det moderne abstrakte maleri, og konsekvensen af dette maleri, der har været Duchamps udgangspunkt for Étant donnés.

Det er en kendt sag at Duchamp afskyede det “retinale” eller meget “maleriske”maleri, som for eksempel kommer til udtryk i den abstrakte ekspressionisme. Dette moderne og emanciperede maleri har frigjort sig fra alt andet end sit eget grundplan og sit eget materiale, som derved synliggøres. Men derved har det abstrakte maleri også frigjort sig fra alt det der tidligere kunne appellere til “the grey matter” – til tolkning.

Denne udvikling må Duchamp se som alt andet end “frigørende”. Og det abstrakte maleri gør sig heller ikke fri af sin største konvention – det gør sig ikke fri af sit grundplan eller af billedplanet, men accentuerer det derimod.

I Étant donnés frigør Duchamp værket fra billedplanet – men han gør det på det perspektiviske bliks betingelser. Han ærer derved det intelligente øjes potentiale – men på en måde der overskrider det gamle perspektivmaleris muligheder. I det gamle perspektivmaleri havde “perspektiv” og billedplan indgået et forlig! Perspektivbilledet var fikseret til billedplanet – på bestemte betingelser. I Étant donnés er der ikke noget der på forhånd er fikseret til lærred, træ eller væg. Det er kun beskueren der kan “fiksere” billedet (eller maleriet). Derfor giver værket ingen mening eller betydning uden denne beskuer. Billedet (eller maleriet) eksisterer kun i beskuerens sind. Og da der ikke er noget fælles eller fast billede fikseret nogen steder, kan der heller ikke være nogen fælles tolkning⁽⁷⁾.

Étant donnés er et kompliceret og anarkistisk værk, der på mange niveauer udsender meddelelser eller indbyder til associationer. Desværre er det ikke i denne artikel muligt for mig at yde hverken værket eller mit arbejde med værket fuld retfærdighed. Jeg vil dog nævne et andet aspekt af værket der også er blevet “overset”. I Étant donnés er kunstværkets ekshibitionistiske element overdrevet – idet billedet så at sige afslører sine nøgne kønsorganer ved et overraskelsesangreb – ligesom ekshibitionisten gør. Dette kan kun ses som en kommentar til alle maleriers, eller alle kunstværkers, iboende ekshibitionisme, ogÉtant donnés kan derfor ses som et yderliggående alternativ til det selvabsorberede abstrakte maleri. Det abstrakte maleri havde vendt ryggen til beskueren og blokeret for sin traditionelle mediefunktion – og derved også fra sin egen beskuers indsigt eller tolkning.

Det er tankevækkende at værket er fremstillet i årene efter 2. verdenskrig, atomvåbenkapløbet ihukommende. Étant donnés kan ses som et “kunstens (og dermed civilisationens) vanitas maleri”. Og derved må Duchamp først og fremmest kritisere den kunstige (moderne) kunst – altså den kunst der kun har sig selv som motiv. Værket ærer det Givne eller naturen og negerer det kunstige eller menneskeskabte. Det er et selvkritisk og meget melankolsk værk. Men derved negerer det ikke beskuerens oplevelse af værket. Beskueren bliver derimod værkets (med)skaber og fortolker.

I Étant donnés har Duchamp udtrykt sig “sprogligt” ved at opstille fuldstændigt genkendelige elementer eller tegn (døren, nøgenfiguren, landskabet m.v.), der appellerer til aflæsning. Denne intellektuelle udfordring må også være et af værkets væsentligste aspekter – for Étant donnés er et kunstværk – på trods af sin modvilje overfor kunsten og det menneskeskabte. Duchamps Étant donnés foregriber den “Return of the Real”, som vi er vidne til i nutidskunsten. Ligesom Étant donnés åbner meget af nutidskunsten op for en overflod af (relativistiske) tolkninger. På mange måder kan Étant donnés ses som en “hybrid” – en sammensmeltning mellem det gamle perspektivmaleri og den nutidige installationskunst. Den nutidige installationskunst kan derfor ses som det gamle perspektivmaleris naturlige arvtager⁽⁸⁾.

Noter

1. Beskrivelsen af mødet med døren bygger på egne iagtagelser, da jeg to gange – i juli 1998 og i februar 1999 – har besøgt museet. Jeg vil ikke i denne artikel inkludere overvejelser over den strategi der synes at være udtænkt i forbindelse med værkets placering på museet. Jeg reflekterer heller ikke her over forskellige beskuertyper og deres eventuelle forhåndskendskab til værket og heller ikke over forskellige voyeuristiske aspekter af værket.

2. Selvom Étant donnés tydeligvis har meget at gøre med perspektiv og også er blevet erkendt som en perspektivkassekonstruktion, så er der så vidt jeg ved ikke nogen der har hæftet sig ved at den mørke murstensmur fungerer som værkets billedplan. For eksempel beskriver den spanske forsker Juan Antonio Ramírez i bogenDuchamp, Love and Death, Even (1993), ikke muren som andet end “the Brick (or holed) Wall“. Reaktion Books, London, 1998.

3. Det har ikke været min primære hensigt at hylde Étant donnés på bekostning af the Large Glass… men værket trænger til en kærlig hånd, en opskrivning. I mammutværket Downcast Eyes omtaler historikeren Martin Jay den negative holdning til værket der er (eller har været) almindelig blandt Duchamp forskerne, men beskriver desuden værket på en mere positiv måde: “To its detractors the Étant donnés is little more than another of Duchamp’s hoaxes, “the ultimate bluff against art and the whole superstructure, an obscene diorama pawned off on a reputable museum because of the reputation of the “artist” and the brilliant literary apparatus lending it prestige.” To those less hostile, it represents Duchamp’s most profound exploration of the troubled confluence of vision and desire.” Citat fra Martin Jay, Downcast Eyes, The Denigration of Vision in Twentieth-century French Thought, p. 169,
University of California Press, 1994.

4. Rosalind Krauss har også bemærket readymaden og snapshot’ets parallellitet, og hun skriver: “the readymade’s parallel with the photograph is etablished by its process of production. It is about the physical transposition of an object from the continuum of reality into the fixed condition of the art-image by a moment of isolation or selection.” Krauss: The Originality of the Avantgarde and other Modernist Myths, p. 206, Cambridge Massachusett and London, 1993.

5. Den franske forsker Jean Clair har i artiklen “Duchamp and the classical perspectivists” gjort opmærksom på Duchamps interesse for de gamle perspektivtraktater. Han skriver: “An obvious fact which need to be stressed is that by substituting a plate of glass for an opaque canvas spreed on a stretcher as support, Duchamp was doing no more than applying the analysis of the classical perspectivists to the letter in making a real “parrete di vetro” (wall of glass).” Jean Clair viser tillige, hvordan Duchamps the Large Glass synes at illustrere perspektivtraktaterne, i selve designet af glasset, både i ikonografiske detaljer og i kompositionen. Citat fra Art Forum, Marts 1978, p. 40-49.

6. Når jeg kalder værket et dekonstrueret maleri og et visuelt opslagsværk, så skyldes det værkets fremtrædelsesform, der kan iagtages som leddelt eller som noget der er splittet fra hinanden. Jeg følger egentlig blot den dekonstruktion Duchamp allerede har foretaget, og derfor skal denne dekonstruktion ikke sammenstilles for nøje med Derridas filosofiske dekonstruktion. Når jeg kalder værket for et opslagsværk, skyldes det ligeledes værkets leddeling. Hvert led i værket synes at udsende en talestrøm – der i relation til udviklingen af maleriet i det 20. århundrede, kan aflæses eller tolkes på bestemte måder samtidig med at værket i bogstaveligste forstand er åbent for fortolkninger.

7. Étant donnés har da også givet anledning til diverse fantasifulde tolkninger, og nogle af disse er blevet afvist som “forkerte”. Jeg mener dog ikke at det er meningen at de skal afvises. I mit speciale har jeg studeret Duchamps interesse for stereoskopi og anamorfoser. Den tidligere nævnte franske forsker Jean Clair har beskrevet det stereoskopiske billedes særlige karakter: “Because it has no material reality it does not permit symbolic exchange.” Sammensmeltningen af det stereoskopiske billedes to moderbilleder eksisterer også kun i beskuerens sind, hvilket må have fascineret og inspireret Duchamp. Jean Clair: Opticeries, October 5, Summer 1978.

8. Sætningen “The Return of the Real” er en henvisning til Hal Fosters bog af samme navn. Foster: The Return of the Real, the Avant-Garde at the End of the Century, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1996.

Pata or Quantum: Duchamp and the End of Determinist Physics

The early 20th Century saw a breakdown, a deconstruction if you will, of the classical Enlightenment assertion that the world is fundamentally knowable to us. In the art and philosophy of the Enlightenment era, the rational capacity of the human mind to analyze and comprehend itself and the world was trusted implicitly. In science, the classical Newtonian physical model was the dominant paradigm. This model held that given sufficient knowledge of a physical system’s initial state, its behavior could be understood and predicted completely. Everything in the world that was hidden or obscured could in theory be explained and brought to light by the proper application of human reasoning. But beginning with mathematical thinking in geometry done in the 1860s, these enlightenment ideals began to lose their hold on the world of ideas. Work done in physics, psychology and art began to reformulate a picture of reality that was less certain, and involved more risks.

The current of ideas that carried modern thought away from this determinist position was varied and complex, spanning many disciplines and years. This essay is an attempt to explore some connections and parallels between the art of Marcel Duchamp and developments in modern physics that question the existence of a rational, predictable world. As part of Duchamp’s work, he created fictional, quasi-scientific systems that he worked into his visual designs. Calling these playful systems “pataphysics,” he used the current scientific thinking of the time in a satiric way, making fun of rational, determinist systems and celebrating interesting new developments that cast doubt on traditional thinking. The most complex of these systems is described in The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even, also known as the Large Glass (begun in 1912). Important insights can also be drawn from 3 Standard Stoppages (1914) and the theories inherent to the Readymades (executed between 1913 and 1917).

The scientific groundwork for some of Duchamp’s ideas in these works comes from investigations of non-Euclidean geometries, concepts of 4th dimensional space, work done on x-rays, radiation, and electro-magnetism. Later developments in science, especially the foundations of modern quantum mechanics, continue the trend of less deterministic ways of viewing reality, almost re-iterating some of Duchamp’s playful science fiction as science fact. The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle contextualizes scientific measurement, considering the impact of the viewer on the object being viewed, and introduces an irreducible uncertainty as to the exact energy states of basic particles. Erwin Schrödinger’s set of quantum equations (which links the particle/wave behaviors of electrons, photons, and other particles) expresses their movements in terms of statistical probability fields, such that it becomes meaningless to talk of the particle as having a distinct position at any given time.

This breaking down of assumptions concerning the predictable, rational behavior of the world in Duchamp’s work and in the sciences shares traits with several movements that emerged in and around World War I. Groups like the Cubists, the Futurists and the Dadaists shared a mission of transforming perceptions of the world in order to change how people relate to the world. While it can be difficult to interpret the true intent of the (often contradictory) manifestos and performances of the Dada group, we may try to deduce some valuable structures from their story. Rebelling against the rationalist social structures responsible for the devastating war, Dadaists attempted to create new languages for artistic (or even anti-artistic) expression. The Dada project recognized the inadequacies of existing forms of expression to compass a real understanding of the changing world, and sought to destroy all rationalistic cultural norms in art. By satirizing, mimicking, and distorting the systems they attacked, the Dadaists may have sought to demonstrate the inadequacies of their targets and point the way to the possibility of better forms. In a way, the Dadas acted as a sort of social resistor, slowing down the cultural machinery of the time, helping to re-orient society in a different direction. Duchamp, who is often seen as a sort of cultural father to the Dadaists, had a large impact on this cultural resistance that has been extensively researched and discussed. But the scientific inquiry in his pataphysics and the ways it might be seen as an antecedent to current thinking in quantum physics has not been adequately explored.

The word “pataphysics” was first introduced in 1893 by playwright Alfred Jarry who was attempting to create what he called a “science of imaginary solutions.” As historian Linda Henderson explains, “Jarry was deeply interested in contemporary developments in science and geometry, which offered a means to challenge traditional positivism” (Henderson, 47). One of these developments was the mathematical description of non-Euclidean geometries.

Classical geometry, as first formulated by Euclid in Alexandria circa 300 BCE, has within it the fundamental assumption that two parallel lines will extend indefinitely and never meet. This assumption was held to be a priori fact until work done by Carl Friedrich Gauss, Georg Riemann, and others around the 1860s pointed the way toward internally consistent geometrical systems that behaved very differently from the classical model. While working in a Paris library in the early 1910s, Duchamp was exposed to the writing of French mathematician Henri Poincare, whose writings in support of the new mathematical models against the Enlightenment traditions of classical rationalism were an inspiration to him.

click to enlarge

Figure 1
Marcel Duchamp,
3 Stoppages Étalon (3 Standard Stoppages), 1913-14, wood, glass,
threads, varnish and glass. Katherine S. Dreier Bequest, The Museum
of Modern Art, New York © 2000 Succession Marcel Duchamp, ARS, N.Y./ADAGP,
Paris

The work that most exemplifies Duchamp’s interest in non-Euclidean geometries (with its implications of non-intuitive curved spaces) is 3 Standard Stoppages of 1914. Duchamp describes the piece in a questionnaire from the Museum of Modern Art as “a joke about the meter – a humorous application of Riemann’s post Euclidean geometry which was devoid of straight lines” (Henderson, 61). As with all of Duchamp’s work, this art object functions on several different levels simultaneously.

The object itself consists of three pieces of wood cut to the pattern of a length of string which Duchamp claims to have dropped three times, so the resulting pattern is a random distortion of a straight line. Recent investigations of this crucial work also point out the nature of the French ‘stoppage’ or ‘invisible mending’ in relation to small alterations the artist made to the supposedly random shape. Most of Duchamp’s work contains an element of social parody or satire, and 3 Standard Stoppages is no exception. France at the time considered itself to be an arbiter of European High culture, and also acted as the official organ of the relatively recent metric system. By creating a new standard of measurement based on chance, Duchamp lampoons the French national pride in its standard measurement.

The Standard Stoppages also represent a major investment in the use of chance as an expressive medium (the piece is sub-titled “Canned chance, 1914”). But there is a deeper element to the proclamation Duchamp makes with the Stoppages, which becomes manifest in the Large Glass. The Stoppages stand as the foundation of the fictional physical system that Duchamp describes in the notes of the Green Box, and diagrams in the Large Glass. He decisively breaks away from the classical, rationalist physical model and determines a new fundamental unit for his new science.

Duchamp refers to Jarry’s ideas and consciously speaks about his desire to re-invent the physical model of the time when he describes the Stoppages as “casting a pataphysical doubt on the concept of the straight line as being the shortest route from one point to another” (Henderson, 62). He states in his notes that he is interested in describing “a reality which would be possible by slightly distending the laws of physics and chemistry,” (Henderson, xix) and the original Stoppages represent a fundamental unit of that distension. Rather like Planck’s constant in quantum mechanics, or the speed of light in General Relativity, the Stoppages represent a new basic metric for describing and measuring the profoundly irrational space that is described in The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even. This relationship is evident in the placement of a Network of Stoppages in the Large Glass, a pataphysical device that carries the spray of the Bachelor Machine to the sieves and parasols. He places the new metric directly into the system, using his measuring device to transport the erotic energy of the Bachelors.

click to enlarge

Figure 2
Marcel Duchamp, The Bride
Stripped Bare by her Bachelors, even (The Large Glass), 1915-23
© 2000 Succession Marcel Duchamp ARS, N.Y./ADAGP, Paris

The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even is a modern day chimera, with almost as many interpretations as it has had viewers. In some sense, though, it can be called a pataphysical system that makes a “…critique of scientific laws and determinist causality” (Henderson, 185). Duchamp incorporates many different scientific ideas of his time into the workings of the piece, and had been exploring these ideas for some time. Beginning with the Cubists and their exploration of Bergsonian ideas of simultaneity, Duchamp also worked with the evolving notions of fourth dimensional space and X-ray exploration of previously hidden realities. His ideas of the experience of time went into his Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2 in 1912. Although he started work in this vein under the auspices of the Cubists (including his brothers, artists Jacques Villon and Raymond Duchamp-Villon) the execution of the Nude proved too radical for the Cubists, and Duchamp subsequently declared he was through with art “Movements.” From there, Duchamp explores even further his ideas of 4th dimensional space in his series of studies of the Bride figure.
The Large Glass itself contains many interlocking mechanisms whose function appears to be to transform and transport the “illuminating gas” from the Bachelor Machine to the 4th dimensional realm of the Bride, where it is stored in a reservoir as “love gasoline” which the Bride uses to create her “cinematic blossoming.” The Bride is a 4th dimensional being, at once an automobile, a wasp, a tree, a steam engine, etc., while the Bachelors consist of 9 “mallic moulds” which contain the invisible illuminating gas and function as 3-dimensional template shapes, analogous to the 2-dimensional negative’s relationship to the photographic print. Duchamp at once mimics scientific description of these mechanical systems and parodies scientific understanding, which was thrusting itself on the Western consciousness in the form of massive industrialization and mechanization. Some of the imaginative physical processes described in the Green Box (the notes that accompany the Large Glass) include the stretching of the unit of length, the oscillating density, emancipated metal, and friction re-interpreted (Henderson, 192).

In positing this system, Duchamp seems to place his science in the context of irrational desire and exploration. It is as if he took standard physical systems, and substituted erotic lust as the prime motive force instead of gravity or momentum. Duchamp functions here almost as a Freudian physicist, attacking the conventional norms of the rational, determinist conventions of the time on multiple, multivalent levels. By inserting the irrational desires of the Freudian id into the newly forming non-deterministic physical models, he disarms and “unloads” classical positivist social, physical, and psychological ideas.

While certain elements of the coming revolution in particle physics were already in evidence at the time Duchamp was working on the Large Glass, the breakthrough work establishing a scientifically sound, physical basis for indeterminacy came in 1926 when Schrödinger published his famous equations unifying the particle/wave dualism observed in the behavior of certain particles. Establishing the basis for what is now field theory, Schrödinger’s equations describe particles as discrete quanta of energy that exist as a statistical flux, or a range of possible positions or states. The implication of this model is that, under certain definable conditions, it may not be possible to predict exactly what these particles will do next. Furthermore, further quantum theories postulate that in a real sense these particles do not have precise positions during certain interactions until they crash into something that can be observed and measured.

By the time these postulates become established, classical Newtonian physics no longer seemed to apply to physics on the sub-atomic scale. In fact, it is only by a statistical summing over of these stochastic irregularities at a much larger scale that the classical Newtonian behaviors of everyday objects are explained. These formulations were highly controversial, and scientists like Einstein and even Schrödinger himself rejected them as too irrational and mysterious. This unmeasureability in particle physics has a direct antecedent in the work of Duchamp, particularly in his conception of the Bride in the Large Glass. He conceives of her as inhabiting a 4th-dimensional world above that of the Bachelors that is unmeasureable. The Bride herself is a 4th-dimensional being who cannot be measured in any conventional sense. In order to claim a common ideological ancestry of these concepts, there must be a common link that they share. To find that link, we may look to mathematician Henri Poincare, especially his outlook on scientific and mathematical descriptions of the world called conventionalism. Poincare’s attitude toward the non-Euclidean geometries discussed above was that they were just as valid constructs for solving certain kinds of problems as the more traditional Euclidean descriptions that had been perceived to be eternal and unshakably true for over two centuries. He felt that scientific theories are only conventions used by scientists to describe the patterns they see in nature. This is a sharp contrast to the realist perspective that scientific laws have a real existence that supercedes their manifestation in nature, a classical determinist formulation.

This conventionalist attitude would, perhaps, have been necessary before Schrödinger could have formulated his theories as he did. The model of a sub-atomic component as both a wave and a particle is an imagined metaphor for what the interactions might look like if we were able to perceive them directly. But no such thing that is both a wave and a particle exists in our direct experience. To formulate such a model and work under the assumption that it is an accurate and useful depiction of the actual interaction presupposes that the author understands the model as being a convenient metaphor, an initial convention, not necessarily a discovery of the true laws of nature. We see the roots of conventionalism in Duchamp’s pataphysics as well. His declaration of an intent to describe a reality formed by “slightly distending the laws of physics and chemistry” is a statement that he intends to explore a system with altered conventions. He understood the power of the imagined scientific metaphor and wished to apply it in his own artwork.

The next major piece of the indeterminacy puzzle arrived in 1927 with the publication of Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle. Heisenberg had analyzed the implications of measuring the state of a particular particle. The only way to determine anything about the position or momentum of an object is to interact with it, to shine a light on it, or hit it with something else and measure how the second object reacts. But at the scale of the sub-atomic, “shining a light on it” is the same as hitting with something; at that scale, light interacts as a particle itself (called the photon) which has a definite mass and momentum of its own. If one wants to determine the position of an electron, one must hit it with something like a photon, measure how the photon’s trajectory is altered by the collision, and deduce from the trajectory of the electron. The only catch is, there is nothing with which to hit the electron that is small enough not to perturb its initial trajectory. By the act of measuring the state of the electron, one must alter its initial trajectory. By this, Heisenberg deduced that one can never be certain of both the position and momentum of a sub-atomic particle such as the electron. In addition, because of the seemingly unpredictable implications of the particle/wave duality, the photon alters the trajectory of the electron in a statistically random way. This is quite an ontological blow to the Enlightenment doctrine that the world is inherently knowable; here we have convincing scientific evidence that there are some kinds of information which are physically impossible for us to gather.

In this way, Heisenberg contextualizes the scientific act of measurement. By considering the effect of the observer on the observed system, he changes the rules of science. No longer are we simply gatherers of knowledge that has an absolute existence in the world independent of us; we are active participants in a system that changes as a result of our interactions with it. Duchamp by this time had already been engaged in a similar enterprise aimed at the contextualization of the art world. His readymade works, such as Fountain, Bottle Rack and Bicycle Wheel, force the reconsideration of the nature of the art object. By discarding the accepted context of the perceived object, the artist forces the viewer to be an active participant in an experience Duchamp insists to be art. He believed that the art experience was one created not only by the artist, but also the spectator. In a speech to the American Federation of Artists in 1957 he said,

“… The creative act is not performed by the artist alone; the spectator brings the work in contact with the external world by deciphering and interpreting its inner qualifications and thus adds his (her) contribution to the creative act.”

The forces that Duchamp explores in his work are invisible, obscured. His interest in x-rays, radio waves, and magnetism inform and give shape to his pataphysics, as they also define the trends in physical sciences discussed here. The psychoanalytic theories of Freud and Jung that were so terribly influential on European and American artists of the time emphasize the hidden aspects of the personality; the subconscious is that which cannot be known or experienced by us directly but has a substantial impact on our actions and who we believe ourselves to be. There was at the time a confluence of thought accepting the existence of hidden mysteries with the intent to explore their boundaries. Gabriel Buffet Picabia characterized the 1910s as a time of “an ebullience of invention, of exploration beyond the rational in every domain of the mind- science, psychology, imagination.… It would seem, moreover, that in every field, a principle direction of the 20th century was the attempt to capture the ‘non-perceptible'”(Henderson, XX).
It is unlikely that Duchamp’s work had any direct influence on the scientists working in the areas that I have described, but the current of thought that has been carried through in so many ways through so many different permutations has had a profound impact on how we view the world around us. The complexities of Marcel Duchamp’s thought and the rich history behind the development of indeterminate quantum physics deserve far more attention than I have been able to give them here. It would be valuable to invest more attention into the roots of the Enlightenment ideals I have referred to, and to explore the reactions of the guardians of the Enlightenment ideals to early 20th century doubts. Further investigation of Duchamp’s notion of “unloading” ideas from objects and systems that he explored in the readymades warrants further investigation, to see the effect of his unloading in scientific gestalt of the era. The chaos mathematics that has become such a powerful way to investigate patterns in seemingly random behaviors may have some very interesting parallel ideas to some of those presented here. This essay only scratches the surface of many relevant topics. But the exercise of examining the ideas from the different disciplines I’ve touched on (art, science, and psychology) seems a very productive one, and the similarities and differences in the conceptions of the world help enrich our understanding of ourselves and how we have come to believe the things we believe.

Sources

Henderson, Linda Dalrymple. Duchamp
in Context, Princeton University Press, 1998