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31. Tomkins, ibid. p. 25: »Two of Duchamp´s classmates at the Lycée Corneille, Pierre Dumont and Robert Pinchon, eventually became adept practitioners of the style, especially Pinchon, a “baby Impressionist”, as Marcel described him, who began having regular shows in Rouen before he was eighteen.« Like his two brothers before him, Duchamp took drawing lessons from Philippe Zacharie, a Beaux-Arts painter of allegorical scenes who contributed to spread the ideas of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism throughout the artistic community of Rouen.   

32. Francis M. Naumann reports that Duchamp´s first contact with visual art happened through his grandfather Emile Frédéric Nicolle (1830-1894) painter and printmaker, author of several etchings of the countryside where Duchamp grew up. For details on Emile Frédéric Nicolle see: F.M.Naumann, Marcel Duchamp. The Art of Making Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, New York/Amsterdam 1999, pp 28-31 and related footnotes.

33. Raymond Duchamp-Villon (1876-1918).

34. Jacques Villon (Gaston Duchamp 1875-1963) was still alive at the time of these notes (1945).

35. Duchamp told Pierre Cabanne that the conversation in the intellectual circles he attended in those times was mainly focused on Edouard Manet. See P.Cabanne, ibid. p.22.

36. Duchamp attended the classes at the Académie Julian for one year in 1904, then he left Paris for the army. According to C.Tomkins, the Académie Julian was a private art school in which traditional teaching methods were followed. See C.Tomkins, ibid. p.32 as well as notes no. 9 and no.10.

37. Place Ravignan (Place Emile Goudeau) takes its name from rue Ravignan, a street in the Parisian quarter of Montmartre. This street was the center of the artistic bohème thanks to the famous Bateau-Lavoir in which several artists, including Picasso, had an atelier.

38. Section d´Or included works of several cubist artists such as Gris, the brothers Villon, Gleizes, Metzinger, Picabia, Marcoussis and others. During the month of October 1912 Duchamp´s painting Nude Descending a Staircase, No 2 was exhibited at the Salon de la Section d´Or. However Kiesler does not write »at« but »through« the Section d´Or which could also mean »through the artists of the Section d´Or«. In this case Duchamp could have met Apollinaire any time during 1912 through an artist of this group. For further details on the chronology Duchamp/Apollinaire see: C.Tomkins, ibid. p. 91 and p.473 as well as note no.28.

39. Pierre Dumont (1884-1936) was one of Duchamp´s schoolmates and later he would become the leader of the Société Normande de Peinture. For a show of this group Duchamp designed a poster in 1909. This group was eventually involved in the activities of the so-called Puteaux Cubism see: C.Tomkins, ibid. p.57. Tomkins reports the meeting between Duchamp and Picabia as follows: »Gabrielle Buffet-Picabia, whom he [Picabia] married in 1909, sets the date of her husband’s first meeting with Duchamp in 1910, the year in which Picabia joined the Société Normande de Peinture Moderne. According to Duchamp, however, they were introduced to each other by Pierre Dumont at the Salon d´Automne in 1911, and ”our friendship began right there”« C.Tomkins, ibid., p.62. See also D.Daniels, Duchamp und die Anderen, Köln 1992, p.30-32. J.Gough-Cooper and J.Caumont date the meeting at the Salon d´Automne on September 30, 1911.

40. Jonchets is a French word which can be translated with »Jackstraws«. It is a game also known as »Pick-up Sticks« or »Mikado«. To begin the game the jackstraws are bunched in one hand and released vertically on a flat surface so that the straws fall in a jumble. Then each player tries to pick up as many sticks as possible, one by one, trying not to move any other stick. If a stick moves, it is someone else’s turn. The winner is the player who has picked up the most sticks. Jonchets was popular in France at the beginning of the century and was included in most of game sets. Furthermore, in the old French version of Jonchets, four sticks were surmounted by sculptured heads of the King, the Queen and two Knights as some of the chessmen.

41. The Jura-Paris Road is a very well known event in Marcel Duchamp´s hagiography. Duchamp recorded the Jura-Paris Road in a note which he included in the Green Box. Picabia, Duchamp and Apollinaire went on a trip to Etival, on the Jura Mountains, for a holiday at Madame Buffet´s house. Madame Buffet was Picabia´s mother in law and she was a cultivated woman who liked to be entertained by Apollinaire reading poems. According to J.Gough-Cooper and J.Caumont (entry on October 26, 1912), Picabia took his friends to Etival in one of his cars. Both ways to and back from Etival were difficult because of the weather conditions and of the mountain roads. Duchamp was inspired by this journey and wrote a text in which he transfigured this experience in a complicated chain of puns and pseudo-scientific problems. For a detailed analysis of the Jura-Paris Road see: Linda Darlymple-Henderson, Duchamp in Context. Science and Technology in the Large Glass and Related Works, Princeton 1998, 37-39.            

42. Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918) founded the avant-garde revue Les Soirées de Paris in 1912 with André Salmon, René Dalize and André Billy.   

43. Kiesler probably refers to a special issue on Picabia, the Picabia Number, of the American magazine »The Little Review«, no.2, Spring 1922. Jane Heap who was the co-director of this magazine invited Kiesler to organize the International Theatre Exposition in New York, 1926. 

44. In 1912 Marcel Duchamp´s Nu descendant un escalier was refused by the Salon des Indépendents. After this refusal, Duchamp decided to abandon painting and turned his attention to other interests. On the abandonment of painting and on Duchamp´s new role as an »art worker« see: Thierry de Duve »Resonances of Duchamp´s visit to Munich« in: Marcel Duchamp Artist of the Century, edited by R.Kuenzli and F.M.Naumann, Cambridge/London 1987 and 1990.  

45. »Members of the Cubist hanging committee (including Gleizes and Le Fauconnier) are disturbed by the painting and ask his brother [one of Duchamp´s brothers] to intercede with him to at least alter the title. He [Duchamp] withdraws the painting« in A.d´Harnoncourt, ibid. p. 13. C.Tomkins reports this anecdote as well on pp. 81-82.

46.According to J.Gough-Cooper and J.Caumont, Picabia´s uncle, Maurice Davanne, offered Duchamp a job in the Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève to replace a librarian for two months. Duchamp then remained there until 1915. 

47. »Then«, the word is spelled wrong in the original manuscript.

48. This entry could be referred to the way of compiling the filing cards in a library writing the data of the book by hand. Duchamp underlines the extreme precision used in writing on this small paper, almost suggesting that this activity could have replaced, at a certain point of his life, any other kind of artistic production. See also note no.42. 

49. Max Stirner (1806-1856) German philosopher. His major work is Der Einzige und sein Eigentum (The Individual and His Own). Naumann writes that Duchamp discovered Stirner during the time he spent in Munich in 1912. See F.M.Naumann, Marcel Duchamp. The Art of Making Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, ibid. p.46.

50. Picabia was an admirer of Nietzsche´s philosophy. The German philosopher’s writings had a great influence on Dada in regard to their irony and detachment, their critic of the bourgeoisie and scepticism.