Manual of Instructions for Marcel Duchamp Etant Donnes - La Chute D'eau and Le Gaz D'Eclairge

Unknown Author

ISBN 10: 3888142601 / ISBN 13: 9783888142604

Published by Schirmer/Mosel Verlag GmbH, U.S.A., 1987

About this Item

47 Un-numbered pages. Black stiff boards. The wrap around title band is laid in and has a repair for a tear in the middle but is complete. No other defects noted. The four-white-paged English language explanation of the manual is also laid in. Duchamp's notes throughout are in French. During the two decades between 1946 and 1966, when the world at large had long since considered that he had given up art, Marcel Duchamp worked quietly in his New York studio on the fabrication of a large tableau to which he gave the title: Elant Donnes. When his work was completed he proceeded to prepare an illustrated manual of instructions for the use of anyone needing to take the assemblage apart. The manual of instructions is contained in a looseleaf binder and is dated before Duchamp's death in Paris in 1968 Later that year, in accordance with his wish the Foundation presented it to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where it joined the largest collection of Ducharnp's work in the world. Following his instructions, Etant Donnes was dismantled in New York, carefully packed, moved to Philadelphia, and reinstalled in the Museum gallery prepared for it. By July 7, 1969, the reassembly and installation were complete, and the public entering the gallery hung with Ducharnp's paintings. The viewer looks through Duchamp's door into a brilliantly illuminated landscape in which the nude figure of a woman lies supine, raising in her left hand a little, glowing gas lamp, while a waterfall sparkles in the distance. And now there is a published reproduction of the manual of instructions in actual size of the pages of the original ring binder. Duchamp illustrates his manual liberally with his own photographs, plans, and drawings, all, insofar as it is possible to judge, created specifically for the purpose of making his instructions as clear as possible. It is evident that the order in which Duchamp worked upon elements of the tableau over two decades-first the landscape background and the nude figure, then the overall construction and the lighting is not reflected in the order of the fifteen operations that Duchamp set down for its reassembly. The manual of instructions is just that, efficient for its purpose, but as a hitherto unpublished work from the hand of one of the grand masters of twentieth-century art, the interest it will have can scarcely be anticipated.

Seller Inventory # 16211

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Manual of Instructions for Marcel Duchamp Etant Donnes - La Chute D'eau and Le Gaz D'Eclairge
• Publisher: Schirmer/Mosel Verlag GmbH, U.S.A.
• Publication Date: 1987
• Language: French
• ISBN 10: 3888142601
• ISBN 13: 9783888142604
• Binding: Hard Back
• Edition: First Edition
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: No Dust Jacket As Issued