Why Duchamp: An Essay on Aesthetic Impact - Softcover

Baruchello, Gianfranco; Martin, Henry

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0914232738 ISBN 13: 9780914232735

Publisher: McPherson, 1985

Synopsis

In this natural sequel to How to Imagine the authors direct their attention to the mythology and critical scaffolding that surrounds the enigmatic figure of Marcel Duchamp. What exactly is the value of his work today? How can we thread our way through the intricacies of his thought and achieve some greater understanding of its implications? Baruchello and Martin recapture the essence of Duchamp's singularly revolutionary art and discover as well the man behind the Artist. One again, the story is told in Baruchello's absorbing voice, at once and the same time a voice of authority and disarming modesty. This edition features ten photographs of Duchamp and his work (many taken by Baruchello). A selected bibliography on Duchamp is included.

About this title

About the Author

Gianfranco Baruchello has been a vital presence in the major galleries, museums, and private collections of both Europe and America since 1961, including the Guggenheim Museum and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He has described his works as "using the various modes of art as possible ways of creating a space where contradictions may not only coexist but coalesce into a series of little systems to be proposed as an alternative to all the Great Systems, Great Creeds, Great Faiths, and ideologies." He sees these little systems as provisional and in constant flux; and one finds their traces in paintings, sculptures, assemblages, objects, films, videotapes, books, and a variety of forms of ephemera such as events, happenings, and projects. All of these activities express a feeling of anguish toward the present state of the world, coupled with a sense of wonder at being able to look back at what the artist calls his "errors" and to turn this constant revision of experience into a means of survival. Currently Baruchello lives in Rome and Paris.

Henry Martin was born in Philadelphia and received degrees in English literature from Bowdoin College and New York University. He translates contemporary Italian literature and contributes as a critic to a number of international art magazines, including Art News, for which he writes as a regular correspondent from Italy. He has written many books: a lengthy essay on the work of Baruchello has been published by the museums of Mantua and Livorno; major monographs on Arman, Adami, and George Brecht have appeared, respectively with Abrams, Maeght, and Multhipla. The recipient of a Critic's Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, Martin is married to the artist Berty Skuber; they live not far from Balzano, in the mountains of southern Tyrol, with their son John-Daniel.

From Library Journal

Here is, so to speak, a ``talking book'' an edited record of the Italian perfor mance artist's further reminiscences on art, Duchamp, and tangential subjects, told to friend Henry Martin. It is a se quel to their equally idiosyncratic How To Imagine: a narrative on art and agri culture (1983). Baruchello is a zippy conversationalist, a bit rash (self-styled ``an intellectual terrorist''), but reliable. ``I'm a little tired, really, of this myth of Duchamp as a kind of Holy Man in re treat . . . .'' Baruchello's thrust is that ``Duchamp gives authorization to do whatever you want . . . .'' Baruchello advances thoughtful criticism of Du champ's work while asserting its lasting vitality. Recommended for large collec tions. Mary Hamel-Schwulst, Art Dept., Goucher Coll., Towson, Md.
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: McPherson
• Publication date: 1985
• ISBN 10: 0914232738
• ISBN 13: 9780914232735
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 158