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Marcel Duchamp: In His Own Words [VHS]

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Anyone who is a fan of Marcel Duchamp or interested in his works and 20th Century Art will find this video fascinating. It contains 3 sections ranging from his Cubist period to his Ready-Made objects. The video provides a lot of information about "why" Duchamp chose to create the artworks he did. Particular attention is paid to Nude Descending a Staircase, # 2, and The Large Glass, or The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even. Though, in some places, it was hard to understand the artist as he spoke about his works, it is a worthwhile video to view on a period of art that is as complex to understand as the century itself was.

It's not what you know, it's whom you know. Anyone who got to know the right people in the right places, got elected into the pantheon of "modern" art. What sets this MOMA 30' doctry. appart from the run of the mill arty fartsies, is the persona of inimitable Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968) himself.
A grandfather of Dadaist, anti-art tendencies, a man of great wit who had given up on painting way back in 1915, believing it had become utterly kaputt! He then devoted himself to chess and had apparently become a very skilled jouer.
Solid family inheritance had helped him comfortably ease trough the turbulance of two world wars and exile. He had some poignant things to say about this country, esp. California. Far from being quotable. I'd say Duchamp's persona far outgrew Duchamp as an artist who ceased to produce Art. Or he had refused to grow up as an artist. Growing up is painful in every instance. The question is this: is great personality art in itself? I think it often goes perfectly well with art itself, but ultimately it is not art per se.
We shan't forget that art is luxury, first and foremost. With all that said, Duchamp was a fine gentleman.