Marcel Duchamp: Etant donnes (Philadelphia Museum of Art) - Hardcover

Michael R. Taylor

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0300149794 ISBN 13: 9780300149791

Publisher: Yale University Press, 2009

Synopsis

In his early thirties, Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968) convinced everyone that he had abandoned making art in favour of playing chess. But from 1946 to 1966, he was secretly at work in his studio on West 14th Street in New York City. There he produced his final masterpiece: 'Etant donnes: 1[degrees] la chute d'eau, 2[degrees] le gaz d'eclairage', comprised of a battered wood door through which one views a prone, nude female, holding aloft an antique gas lamp against a landscape of trees, waterfall, and sky. Unveiled as a permanent installation at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in July 1969, the year after Duchamp's death, it startled the art world with its explicit eroticism and voyeurism, as well as its trompe l'oeil realism. Since its public debut, 'Etant donnes' has been recognized as one of the most important and enigmatic works of the 20th century. Published on the fortieth anniversary of 'Etant donnes' original installation and to accompany the first major exhibition on the artwork and its related studies, this richly illustrated book presents a wealth of new research and documents that draw upon previously unpublished works of art and materials. The catalogue also examines the critical and artistic reception of 'Etant donnes', as evidenced by the subsequent work of Les Levine, Hannah Wilke, Robert Gober, Marcel Dzama, Ray Johnson, and other artists who have engaged with Duchamp's provocative and challenging tableau-construction.

About this title

Review:

`...provides a wide range of information... The catalogue is a thorough and engaging account of Duchamp's final installation.'
--Julian Jason Haladyn, Burlington Magazine, 1st November 2010

About the Author:

Michael R. Taylor is the Muriel and Philip Berman Curator of Modern Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

About this edition

• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0300149794
• ISBN 13: 9780300149791
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 448