Unpacking Duchamp: Art in Transit [Hardcover]

Dalia Judovitz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 21, 1995

Perhaps no twentieth-century artist utilized puns and linguistic ambiguity with greater effect--and greater controversy--than Marcel Duchamp. Through a careful "unpacking" of his major works, Dalia Judovitz finds that Duchamp may well have the last laugh. She examines how he interpreted notions of mechanical reproduction in order to redefine the meaning and value of the art object, the artist, and artistic production.
Judovitz begins with Duchamp's supposed abandonment of painting and his subsequent return to material that mimics art without being readily classifiable as such. Her book questions his paradoxical renunciation of pictorial and artistic conventions while continuing to evoke and speculatively draw upon them. She offers insightful analyses of his major works including The Large Glass, Fountain and Given 1) the waterfall, 2) the illuminating gas.
Duchamp, a poser and solver of problems, occupied himself with issues of genre, gender, and representation. His puns, double entendres, and word games become poetic machines, all part of his intellectual quest for the very limits of nature, culture, and perception. Judovitz demonstrates how Duchamp's redefinition of artistic modes of production through reproduction opens up modernism to more speculative explorations, while clearing the ground for the aesthetic of appropriation central to postmodernism.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A highly readable and interesting retake on the meaning(s) of Duchamp's work. . . . A worthy contribution to the ever-growing analysis of this enigmatic innovator." -- Art Times

"A sustained meditation on the meanings of Duchamp's works and the strange twists on his career. . . . An inventive . . . explication of Duchamp's major works -- and a surprising number of his minor ones as well." (Washington City Paper

"The enigmatic Marcel Duchamp continues to challenge all who probe his secrets. Judovitz's daunting venture, to 'unpack' their protean implications, is . . . intricate and subtle." -- Choice

"The reason that Duchamp continues to be the subject of so many books is that he constructed his life and his work as a puzzle that invites continual reinterpretation. Judovitz is very good at revealing how Duchamp understood his audience not as passive consumers of his work but as active interpreters. . . . Out of this encounter Duchamp emerges from his modernist origins as a postmodernist artist par excellence, concerned with the dismantling and reformation of the conventions determining artistic enterprises." -- ARLTS News Sheet

In Unpacking Duchamp, Dalia Judovitz claims that Duchamps originality lies in his recognition of the field of artistic production as a field of ready-mades. His work consists of the deliberate staging and reappropriation of previous styles and artistic movements in such a way that is makes visible the conditions of possibility of art. This makes Duchamp the prototypical postmodernist: a man for whom the function of the artist is primarily curatorial--a matter of arranging pre-existent forms. This is reflected in Judovitzs method, which itself involves extensive quotation, from Duchamp and from Duchamp scholars. -- Times Literary Supplement

From the Inside Flap

"Transit, transitional, transition: Dalia Judovitz catches Marcel Duchamp on the run with his art in a suitcase and his thought all boxed and ready to go. . . . She demonstrates how the theme of transition, reappearing from work to work, makes each piece reproduce some other piece, while all continue to exemplify an original which can no longer be found and which has no creator."--Jean-François Lyotard

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 310 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press (November 21, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520088093
• ISBN-13: 978-0520088092
• Product Dimensions: 10.5 x 7.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,376,639 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The unexpected pleasures of unpacking, October 29, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Unpacking Duchamp: Art in Transit (Hardcover)

With so much of the literature available on Marcel Duchamp offering accounts that neither seem to fully resonate with the evidence of the work or with the spirit of the artist himself, I find Unpacking Duchamp to be a refreshing exception. Not only does this book live up to its title's promise of showing us how to "unpack" the master's enigmatic thinking, it does so with such wit and grace that I suspect even he would tip his hat to its author. Taking a body of his work that often appears overly difficult and elusive to enter into, Ms. Judovitz does the nearly impossible, gently prying it open in ways that are beautifully lucid, accessible, and free of jargon, yet, entirely up to the challenge of her ever-moving subject. She constructs readings of the work that go beyond analysis and interpretation to become aesthetic acts in their own right --- reciprocating one that generously enable her readers to enter into and perform their own Duchampian thinking, in ways that genuinely illuminate and bring it to life. This is potentially Duchamp's most important legacy to us but an aspect of his work that often seems poorly understood by many specialists.

In short, I'm extremely glad to finally have a book like this, and I look forward to rereading it in the future. If you are considering it, I would say that it's a challenging read, but one I would strongly recommend if you are at all interested in Duchamp or just interested in exploring an extraordinary mode of thought and creativity. While I do have some knowledge of twentieth-century art, this was not really essential to my appreciation of the book. Its interest and appeal should be broad-based and not limited to either an art audience or one of largely academic interests.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a superb study of Duchamp., November 2, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Unpacking Duchamp: Art in Transit (Paperback)

Dalia Judovitz has written a challenging, stimulating and exhaustively researched book on Duchamp. Her take on many aspects of Duchamp's career is fresh and imaginative, as for example in her close reading of his word play and ready-mades. After the comprehensive studies of Duchamp's ready-mades by Antin, Bauer, Caws, Compton, de Duve, James et al this is very impressive.

A key chapter on Art and Economics, cultural and economic value, as one Duchamp scholar observes, "opens up a whole new area of investigation. Her discussion of the Monte-Carlo Bond and the less well known Drain Stopper which she cleverly compares to Renaissance Art Medals will intrigue all those who are seriously interested in Duchamp.

This is a book to be read and re-read.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unpacking Duchamp is a groundbreaking study on 20th ct art., November 3, 1999

By 

Michael Schwartz (Augusta, GA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Unpacking Duchamp: Art in Transit (Paperback)

Unpacking Duchamp is a highly innovative and breakthrough investigation into Duchamp's transformations of the conditions and status of twentieth-century art, art making, and art viewing. Judovitz approaches Duchamp's "oeuvre" from many interrelated angles, offering detailed and illuminating analyses of individual works, all the while contextualizing her discussions through considerable research and erudition. Her mode of inquiry is at once historical and philosophical -- perfect for the study of Duchamp. Intellectually refined, the book is clear, well-written, with many dashes of humor.

Unpacking Duchamp will appeal to culture critics, historians, and theoreticians, as well as to artists and writers. It is a must read for anyone interested in the contemporary conditions of art.