Marcel Duchamp: The Bachelor Stripped Bare: A Biography [Hardcover]

Alice Goldfarb Marquis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2, 2002

Why another book on Duchamp? Because of all the previous books on Duchamp. Arguably the most influential artist of the 20th century, Duchamp, the son of a successful notary, was also a shrewd manager of his image and interests--so much so that many of those who have written about him have been dazzled by his self-created persona when trying to assess his elusive legacy and equally elusive character. Marcel Duchamp: The Bachelor Stripped Bare is not the first full-length biography of Duchamp, but it is the first to present him in all his human contradictions and to take a refreshingly objective look at his real contribution to modern art. The well-known facts are beautifully explored here: Duchamp's myriad personal relations (with family, lovers, collectors, and artists ranging from Man Ray, Picabia, and Breton to the Stettheimer sisters and the Arensbergs); the creation of major works such as the "readymades" and the "Large Glass"; his passion for chess and presumed abandonment of painting. But beyond this, author Alice Goldfarb Marquis looks past the diffident, humorous mask that Duchamp wore with friend and acquaintance alike, to explore the passions and insecurities that motivated many of his artistic and personal evolutions. She separates the artist from the con artist, to determine just how profound an influence Duchamp has really been. Based on numerous unpublished sources and first-hand interviews, Marcel Duchamp: The Bachelor Stripped Bare stands as a groundbreaking contribution to the ever-burgeoning field of Duchamp studies.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Perhaps the 20th-century art world's most stimulating gadfly, Duchamp (1887-1968) wielded great influence on young American artists, from his cavalier pronouncements and installations to his cryptic sense of humor. He is the subject of an enormous critical industry and produced an alarming amount of primary source material in his own prose and interviews. Sifting through the latter requires a canny guide with a keen eye for separating jests from what Duchamp meant in earnest; journalist and historian Marquis, a visiting scholar in history at the University of California-San Diego (Art Lessons: Learning from the Rise and Fall of Public Arts Funding) does an excellent job. Duchamp spent more time on his "persona," she charges, than his "extremely limited" series of works. In discussing Duchamp's long stint chess playing rather than overt art making, she compares Duchamp to other "disappearing acts" of French artistic life, creators like Gauguin who fled the spotlight to work in their own private corners, then shows how an American audience took this traditional approach as unusual and refreshing. In 12 chapters that include 16 pages of color plates (not seen by PW) and 65 b&w images, Marquis examines the artist's legacy, the way his jokes empowered dealers, artists and art historians, who in turn promoted pop, conceptual and postmodern art that also ridiculed the idea of art. Without taking any guff from Duchamp, and carefully treading between the real contributions and interview verbiage as if she were wearing hip boots, Marquis is a sane and sensible guide to the continually puzzling paradox of Duchamp. The book makes an excellent beginning point for readers who have seen some of the work and want to know more about man and myth.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

The grandfather of postmodernism and a consummate trickster, Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968) remains one of the most complicated characters in art history. In addition to an intellectually demanding oeuvre, he made public statements about his life and work that were often elusive, even contradictory. Journalist and historian Marquis (Alfred H. Barr, Jr.) sets out to present what she feels is a much-needed objective look at the artist, the man, and the conundrum. Though she doesn't attempt to discredit Duchamp or previous Duchamp scholarship, she doesn't take his Olympian stature at face value either. Even Duchamp enthusiasts who might bristle at statements like "Duchamp's art, like tripe, is an acquired taste" will likely thrill to the previously unpublished interviews, letters, and bits of gossip contained here. This alone makes the sure-to-be-controversial biography a noteworthy addition to Duchamp scholarship. The uninitiated may want to start with Calvin Tompkins's more admiring Duchamp: A Biography, but this work is recommended to anyone who wants to explore further. With color plates of major works and candid snapshots of the artist and his circle. In contrast to Marquis's fresh approach, the monograph Marcel Duchamp presents solid but typical essays on the master by Duchamp scholars. One of curator Szeeman's goals is to elucidate Duchampian ideas and their effect on other artists, specifically Jean Tinguely. The publisher hoped to have this supersede previous volumes by reproducing individual works in a larger scale and by including some more obscure artwork. But consequently every item is given more or less equal visual importance, which may cause confusion about the actual size of the original. Still, this handsome and fairly comprehensive volume would be useful to libraries that don't already own Anne D'Harnoncourt's Marcel Duchamp, the retrospective catalog by the Philadelphia Museum of Art and Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Douglas McClemont, New York
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: MFA Publications (September 2, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0878466444
• ISBN-13: 978-0878466443
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,641,372 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Rocking the Duchamp throne, October 1, 2007

By 

Sean Robin (New York City) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Marcel Duchamp: The Bachelor Stripped Bare: A Biography (Hardcover)

If you believe in God, read the Calvin Tomkins bio instead. If you don't, read this one. If you're not sure, read 'em both.

I believe this is only the second book-length biography of the Dadaist, non-Dadaist (perhaps pre-post-Modernist) painter, artist, post-painter, icon and darling of many. Duchamp is a figure that inspires much talk of isms. He was embraced by the Surrealists, the Pop artists and experimental types during the Sixties, the Postmodernists of the Eighties, and a whole lot more since. By signing a urinal (or was it a toilet bowl?) he created much existentialist angst among the artistic classes. His legacy includes those who cart wheelbarrows full of junk into expensive gallery settings, as well as others almost as sauve as he was. He put his name on the map by throwing out the idea that art can only be made with materials bought in art stories, i.e. paints and clay. He for one preferred shopping in hardward stores. Was he a genius or a hoax? This is the question people like to debate. Certainly he was a humorist, and very ironical. Since his early disillusionment with the Art Establishment, he made much of the idea that the only thing left for art to do was shock. And he was very good at this. The superlative I'll add is that he inspired more thought about art than anyone else in the Twentieth Century. Painting will no longer be just "retinal" (or "painterly" as someone has translated this term).

If you enjoy this kind of back-and-forth, you will enjoy this book. Given he was a master ironist, it is fittingly ironical that he should get this more critical handling than usual, by Alice Goldfarb Marquis. Perhaps it's the sign of the times. In another even less kind book, Donald Kuspit blames him in part for ushing in the End of Art. (Surely rubbish, even if too much rubbish has indeed entered the so-called hallowed walls of art.)

You get the picture - if you want a fauning bio, this aint the one. But perhaps it's a necessary corrective after so much gushing. Marcel Duchamp once gave his own version of the dictum, "the only bad publicity is no publicity." By that measure, this volume, which is quite well researched, certainly adds to the MD stock. Ms. Marquis is as much about assessing the damage he has wrought on art as the things he has brought to it. Or to rephraze it from the point of view of a believer, of the damage others have wrought in his name. In one of the more shocking lines, she says that "the Avant-Garde has been marching to his beat ever since, as it marches off a cliff." Strong words, but perhaps this is a moment for art to take a new direction.

During his life Marcel Duchamp very much promoted the idea that there should be no single correct interpretation of his work, or any work. He saw the spectator as playing an important role in the creation of the art. And so it seems just to have this new biography, that veers from the traditional platitudes about the great man. While I don't necessarily subscribe to all the feminist interpretations now being circulated (Kuspit, Amelia Jones, Marquis) I nevertheless find it refreshing to hear this one. For instance: the Large Glass (his masterwork) is a temple to the female Christ...