Marcel Duchamp's Secret Masterpiece
For two decades, Marcel Duchamp fooled the world into thinking he had retired, while quietly creating his last great work. Rachel Wolff on the multiple love affairs that inspired it.
John Schiff
When Duchamp began working on Étant donnés in 1946, he convinced his friends and colleagues that he had given up art to play chess competitively. He would work on his final installation in secret for 20 years.
John Schiff
Following Marcel Duchamp's death on October 2, 1968, his final work, Étant donnés: 1. La chute d’eau, 2. Le gaz d’éclairage (Given: 1. The Waterfall, 2. The Illuminating Gas), was brought to the Philadelphia Museum of Art and reassembled according to his elaborate manual of instructions. Viewers must look through two small holes in the door to see the work.
The interior of Étant donnés depicts a nude woman on a bed of twigs, holding a gas lamp. As the new exhibition in Philadelphia reveals, Duchamp's final work was inspired by three love affairs.
During a visit to Switzerland in 1946, Duchamp stayed at the Hotel Bellevue, above Lake Geneva and overlooking the waterfall Le Forestay. He photographed it and used it as inspiration for the backdrop of Étant donnés.
Duchamp made many studies for the backdrop of Étant donnés based on the photograph of the falls.
When Étant donnés was finally revealed, many of Duchamp's friends and proteges--including Jasper Johns-- felt betrayed by the artist because he did not share his secret work.
The exhibition displays many of Duchamp's studies for Étant donnés, including an arm molded from the artist's lover Brazilian sculptor Maria Martins.
Untitled (Erotic Object), 1959, a copper electroplated plaster study for his final masterwork.
Untitled (Erotic Object), 1959, a copper electroplated plaster study for his final masterwork.
Known as "The Large Glass," this meticulous work was created between 1915 and 1923, when Duchamp declared the work "definitively unfinished." Several years later, when the work was in transit following an exhibition, it was accidentally shattered. Years later, Duchamp, who believed in letting chance play a role in his art, noted: "It's a lot better with the breaks, a hundred times better. It's the destiny of things."
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