Page 32 - Studio International - January February 1975

`aphorism' associated with the later Duchamp certainly followed the same . . . Automatic writing was, above all,
Wittgenstein. It is stated that in a note — route as Picasso in old age, succumbing to destruction of subjectivity . . . But the
dated on the back 1913 — Duchamp had eroticism. I personally find this sad. ED Surrealist's second step was to destroy
posed himself the question: `Can one seems also to lack the quality of 'Norman' objectivity in turn . . . We are given a
make works which are not works of Art ?'9 humour (Satie and Alphonse Allais were first draft of this procedure in the
It is then the latter note which we should also fellow Normans). However, I know false pieces of sugar which Duchamp
ponder, with its Cartesian feeling, and of life-long intimate friends of Duchamp actually made in marble and which
not the response elicited by someone who nevertheless regard ED as primarily suddenly revealed themselves as having
asking what the Large Glass was all an elaborate hoax on the art-loving public ! an unexpected weight. The visitor
about . . . as if Duchamp had not given Duchamp was much preoccupied by weighed them in his hand, was
sufficient evidence already, or at least in the fear of artistic sterility and repetition. supposed to feel, in a blazing and
due course. He accused Picasso of being an onanistic instantaneous illumination, the self-
In the publication Art of This painter, and of course Dr Schwarz has destruction of the objective essence of
Century (a catalogue of the Peggy said as much of Duchamp himself. sugar.
Guggenheim collection) there appears a One might suppose that in his book . . . What appears to me essential in
compelling quotation from Duchamp's `Erotic Art of the West' Robert Melville Surrealist activity is the descent of the
sculptor brother Raymond Duchamp- would have written enthusiastically upon negative spirit into work sceptical
Villon. It is undated and runs : 'The work Etant Donn& but he doesn't even mention negativity becomes concrete, Duchamp's
of art to be accomplished should be a it. The short description of the Large pieces of sugar as well as the fox table
bond between the external and the ego Glass reads . . was devoted to the are works, that is concrete and
and a natural penetration of the one by emblematical representation of nine painstaking destruction of what
the other (it can no longer be the object masturbators aiming their ejaculations in scepticism destroys only in words' • "
itself, nor can it be the ego exclusively, it the general direction of a woman and
must be a creation)'. deliberately missing'10.
Since he died in 1918 it seems possible My point is that Duchamp had a Why not Sneeze Rose Selavy ? 1921
that Duchamp-Villon could well have touching narcissistic attitude to his
written this before 1914 and in doing so creations — his `children' — and this is
was responding to Duchamp's question, manifest in so many features of his
although not a direct answer. It can be artistic output. It must have indeed
argued that Duchamp in fact set about flattered him that independently two
testing his notion, notably with the artists set out on the task of 're-creating'
perpetration of 'ready-mades', the the Large Glass, first the Swede Ulf Linde
earliest of which was The Bicycle Wheel and then our own Richard Hamilton.
dating from 1913. It is no surprise or paradox to see how
I cannot count myself amongst the Duchamp was attracted in equal measure
truly faithful admirers of Duchamp. I am to the banal and to the 'hermetic'. In
something of a heretic; my response to the feudal times the use of the Lord of the
works I admire is almost wholly Manor's mill was compulsory for all
`formalistic' and this could be compared tenants — it was known as the banal mill
to enjoying religious art for its aesthetic and the phrase has given us banal and run ' Richard Hamilton, introduction to the Tate
values while totally rejecting the religious of the mill. The Coffee Grinder and Gallery exhibition, 'The Almost Complete
imperatives. Chocolate Mills are amongst the most Works of Marcel Duchamp'. London 1966.
A crucial issue is that of Etant attractive of all Duchamp's canvases; John Golding: `Duchamp: The Bride
Donner: I do not take this work seriously indeed the recently shown Study for Stripped Bare by her Bachelors, Even'. Art in
as do his most ardent admirers, who in Chocolate Grinder No. 2 of 1914 Context. Allen Lane The Penguin Press
consequence greatly value all the (Kunststammlung Norden — Westfalen, 1973.
Art News April 1974.
preparatory `studies' that lead up to this Dusseldorf), recently exhibited at the Tate * Water writes always in * plural
work. For me, and perhaps many others, Gallery, is such a sensuous painting that Marcel Duchamp, MOMA., Philadelphia
the Second World War is the `break' after many people were stopped in their tracks Museum of Art. Ed. d'Harnancourt &
which I sense a complete change and a on seeing it. Never again was Duchamp McShine, 1973.
great deterioration ... a genuine tiredness. to exhibit this non-erotic sensuality in a 'Art News & Review October 1959.
ED is the kind of thing Duchamp can be work. So it is no paradox either to find 6 Arturo Schwarz 'The Complete Works of
excused for choosing as a means of the 'retinal' in this anti-retinal artist, Marcel Duchamp'. Thames& Hudson1969.
passing the time. I admire a number of rationality in this champion of the Golding ibid.
8 Golding ibid.
the contingent features of the work, the irrational, and that Duchamp the 9'A L'Infinitif' 1967.
`legislative' aspects (the restriction iconoclast was a Duchampian icon maker, 1° Robert Melville: 'Erotic Art of The West'.
against reproduction), the idea of keeping ED being by far the most generous Weidenfeld & Nicholson 1973.
it a secret and best of all — if it is fair to offering in that direction, although in no " 'What is Literature: The situation of the
mention it — the judicious timing of his sense a real rival to the 'stained glasses' writer in 1947. Gallimard 1948. The English
retirement from life in connection with that really are his masterpieces. translation is by Bernard Frechtman and
its premiere. But it remains in conception I have expressed my own view that after published in England by Methuen in 195o.
a banal affair, a peep-hole tableau; Ralph the Second World War Duchamp could
Rumney has remarked that it would be a well have retired, in the sense that he
great commercial success if marketed was always supposed to have done, and
(by Schwarz( in a handy-sized multiple that Etant Donn& is for me a
version. It must have come as quite a disappointment. However, as against this
surprise to Segal when he discovered I believe that Duchamp's activities in the
what was to be seen through the peep field of `artistic philosopher' — if that is
holes in that colossal Spanish door ! ED the best term — make up for any
has no residue of the earlier Duchamp, disappointment, Duchamp emerged as
the eroticism is so unbelievably blatant. one of the most challenging minds of his
There is a character in one of Celine's time. I would like to conclude these lines
novels who declares that the only things with a quotation from Sartre which I
of importance in life are the penis and discovered in 195o and copied out:
mathematics — everything else counts for `The Surrealists took a hearty dislike to
nothing. It is a strange and no doubt that humble certainty on which the
comical utterance and yet it echoes stoic based his ethics . . . Any means
Nietzsche when he wrote : 'All human were good for escaping consciousness
knowledge is either experience or of self and consequently of one's
mathematics.' situation in the world.
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