Book Description
Edited by Kornelia von Berswordt-Wallrabe. Essays by Kornelia von Bersworldt-Wallrabe, Gerhard Graulich, and Herbert Molderings. "Marcel Duchamp has influenced the art of the 20th century more than anyone else except Pablo Picasso. One can reasonably claim that without his work, art history would have taken a different course," writes Herbert Molderings in his essay on Marcel Duchamp as sculptor. His readymades significantly expanded the notion of what art could be, an expansion of borders that was to have major consequences for the path of art later in the century. This beautifully designed book, a bibliophile's treasure, focuses on the structural basis of Marcel Duchamp's oeuvre, the intellectual attitude and the methods he developed to interrupt the utilitarian flow of objects. A selection of statements by Duchamp, printed on parchment paper, offers insight into his aesthetic concepts, and not least into the French artist's enigmatic wit and irony.

Language Notes
Text: German, English

About the Author
Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968) studied at the Academie Julian in Paris. In 1913, his work Nude Descending a Staircase was displayed in the Armory Show in New York, and in 1914 he created his first ready-made. He is one of the rare figures in art who had no forerunners. Most of the inovative artistic movements of recent decades--Pop Art, Arte Povera, Conceptual Art--owe a great deal to Duchamp, whom they have acknowledged as their spiritual father.

FROM THE PUBLISHER