The Duchamp Dictionary
From the Publisher. Marcel Duchamp is among the most influential artists of the last hundred years, and in the new millennium – aside from the great allure he holds for many contemporary artists worldwide – Duchamp has entered mainstream culture as one of the founding fathers of modern art.
Despite his popularity, books on Duchamp often shroud his work in theoretical writing, and are rarely presented in an accessible way. Here, instead, is a book exploring the artist’s life and work in a thoroughly new and engaging manner, with short, alphabetical dictionary entries written in lively, jargon-free prose that at last allow Duchamp’s work and influence to be accessible and enjoyable for a wide audience. * From alchemy and anatomy to Warhol and windows, Thomas Girst’s fascinating text is underpinned by in-depth scholarship and the very latest research, showing how, in the words of contemporary artist Thomas Hirschhorn, Duchamp was "the most intelligent mind of his time."
The book features over 200 entries on the most interesting and important artworks, relationships, people and ideas in Duchamp’s life, such as chess, puns, the fourth dimension, love, genius, The Bicycle Wheel and Fountain, Peggy Guggenheim, Max Ernst, Man Ray, and Arturo Schwarz.
Delightful, newly commissioned collage illustrations introduce each letter of the alphabet and accompany select entries, capturing the irreverent spirit of the artist himself. A contextual introduction shows how the dictionary form has been an inspiration to artists and writers from Flaubert to the Surrealists, while a multitude of quotations from Duchamp himself are woven through the text, adding invaluable insights into his thinking and work.
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