He never committed himself artistically, challenging himself and art through constant innovation: Marcel Duchamp is considered one of the most influential avant-garde artists of the 20th century. The Museum of Modern Art in New York is dedicating a major retrospective to him until August 22.
The last major retrospective of Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968) in the USA was held in 1973, organized by the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Now, both institutions are working together again to present the most comprehensive collection of Duchamp's oeuvre to date: over 300 paintings, sculptures, films, photographs, drawings, and prints illustrate how diverse and unrestricted Duchamp's work was during his six-decade career. He is regularly associated with Surrealism and Dadaism, but never felt he belonged to any particular art genre, instead seeking constant innovation that pushed the boundaries of art. One of his most famous works representing this quest is his now lost readymade Fountain (1917). Another work that made him internationally famous—previously, Duchamp was known mainly to connoisseurs—is his portable »museum« The Box in a Valise (1935–41), for which he reproduced all his artworks created up to that point in miniature. The major retrospective Marcel Duchamp covers all facets of this extraordinary artist. It can be seen at the Museum of Modern Art in New York until August 22.
»More than any other modern artist, Duchamp challenged and transformed the very definition of an artwork«, explains Michelle Kuo, Chief Curator at Large and Publisher, MoMA. »Duchamp’s influence is incalculable and his myriad contributions have established him as one of the most important figures in modern culture. Our exhibition will foreground the ways in which Duchamp upended conventional oppositions between hand and machine, original and copy, intention and chance, and matter and idea.« Duchamp's work also includes playing with gender roles and self-representation: in 1920, for example, he created his female alter ego Rrose Sélavy. The last two decades of Duchamp's career were marked by the rise of his international reputation and major exhibitions, including his first retrospective at the Pasadena Art Museum in 1963. These exhibitions often featured copies of artworks that had been authorized by Duchamp. This idea was consistent with his fascination with reproductions and his radical views on authorship.
»The first American Dada«, »New York's first punk persona«, »the great aunt of feminist performance art« − these are just a few descriptions of the artist Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven, who was considered a living legend in New York around 1920. Mimosa House in London will be showing works by the rediscovered Dadaist in dialogue with contemporary artists in The Baroness from May 27.
Pieter Bruegel the Elder is one of the most famous painters of his time, but his contemporaries primarily valued his idiosyncratic drawings, which served as models for prints. In the exhibition Bruegel Printed, the Städel Museum focuses on this aspect of his work. The exhibition runs through September 20 in Frankfurt am Main.
