Page 30 - Studio International - January February 1975

The

In 1966 Richard Hamilton wrote
in the first paragraph of the Tate
exhibition catalogue: 'No living
artist commands a higher regard
among the younger generation
than Marcel Duchamp''.
Writing of the Large Glass John
Golding says that it is a work 'that still
holds a substantial claim to be the most
complex and elaborately posed art object
that the twentieth century has yet
produced' (1973)2.
Last year, in an interview, Motherwell
said : 'I would say that one of the most
astonishing things in my lifetime as an
artist is his (Duchamp's) prominence.
Thirty years ago, if someone had said to
me "He may become the major influence
in the art scene" I would have said
"You're out of your mind". And most of
my judgements were quite accurate at
that time''.
These judgements are of course
significantly those of artists and while
there may be artists who take a different
stand towards Duchamp's 'prominence'
it is notable that the chief spokesman for a
critical-to-hostile attitude is to be found
There exists just one photograph of But while the American public could go expressed most forcefully by critics
Duchamp's Large Glass which shows it and see The Large Glass this particular photo (Alloway, Greenberg, Hess and others).
before it was broken and with the two panels was to be the 'image' of it for some years to I think John Golding put his finger on an
installed in a composite 'framing'. come which informed people on the other
Significantly the picture was taken on the side of the Atlantic that the perpetrator of important point when he spoke of
occasion of the work's first public showing Nude Descending a Staircase had made an Duchamp as being 'arguably the most
which was at the Brooklyn Museum in an even more audacious work, which had not aristocratic artist of his generation'; he
exhibition that ran from November 1926 to evoked anything like the same publicity. adds to this that Duchamp is also
January 1927. One can think of no single Of interest is the following fact: since the `unquestionably the twentieth-century
work of art of this century which has become exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum lasted symbolist par excellence'.
the subject of such scrupulous research and it till January 1927 this would suggest that If we describe Duchamp as being both
is fascinating to learn that even this photo The Large Glass was not actually broken till superstar and eminence grise (two cliches
proves to be 'incomplete'. It appears that that year, whereas most books state that it that come to mind) this at least serves to
while Duchamp included this photo in was broken in 1926.
The Green Box (1934) it was only when The first appearance of The Large Glass in keep in mind his essential dualism which
Richard Hamilton remarked to Duchamp a book followed swiftly — in 1928 Ozenfant could be confused with the idea of
that the nine 'shots' do not appear that he published `L'Art' and a full page plate fulfilling a double role. But perhaps it is
was told that a diligent retoucher had reproduces the 'Brooklyn' photo, adequately more the case that as a 'public' figure he
removed them! captioned — more or less — and gives the appeared as an eminence grise and as a
The Brooklyn exhibition was organized by correct owner then, namely Katherine Dreier. private artist as a superstar ?
The Société Anonyme which had been Three years later Ozenfant's book was One of his greatest admirers, the
founded by Katherine Dreier and Man Ray to appear in English newly titled 'The Mexican poet Octavio Paz, has described
in 1920 and Duchamp was to play an Foundations of Modern Art". How was it Duchamp's art as 'public because he set
important part in its activities, in particular that in this, the first English book to
the organizing of 'The International reproduce the 'Brooklyn' photo, the most out to renew the tradition of an art "at
Exhibition of Modern Art', the title given to important part of the caption had the service of the mind" and hermetic
the show at the Brooklyn Museum. We learn mysteriously disappeared ? The work on the because it is critical'. In attempting to
that it included 307 works from 23 countries extreme right is indeed a Mondrian of 1926 locate the key to Duchamp's hermeticism
... the setting for the Large Glass's first but the work on the extreme left is not by Paz claims that 'The Bride is the
showing was an open event and yet the event Mondrian but by his countryman, Domela. (involuntary) representation of the only
itself involved the energies of Duchamp as an The amusing irony of the Mondrian being idea-myth of the Western world in the
organizer thus ensuring that the matter was seen through the section of the Glass known modern era: criticism''. This is a
very much in his control. as 'The Oculist Wittness' is the subject of a
The setting was not that of the studio, study by the present writer entitled 'The formidable assessment. Duchamp has
elegantly posed, but that of the ambience of Oculist Wittness regarding abstract Art' stated 'I have forced myself to contradict
an exhibition and in which a certain chance which it is hoped will be published in the myself in order to avoid conforming to my
confusion is accepted. One is shown modern near future. own taste' : and this certainly confirms
art through The Glass and for a first view of Incidentally the catalogue of the Brooklyn the idea that Duchamp operated a
this work the photo could prove ironically exhibition has Big Glass listed simply as Glass. complex personal dialectic. Perhaps
disquieting. 1 John Rodker London 1931 Duchamp's 'strategy' is reflected in the
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