Marcel Duchamp

Property from the Collection of Carlos Alberto Cruz

MARCEL DUCHAMP

DADA: 1916–1923. NEW YORK: SIDNEY JANIS GALLERY, 1953

Sheet of tissue paper (intentionally crushed) (38 x 25 in.; 965 x 635 mm). Exhibition catalogue on a single sheet, designed by Marcel Duchamp. Grey buckram slipcase and chemise.

"A Dada gesture to cancel the 'seriousness' of exhibition catalogues" — Marcel Duchamp

This unusual exhibition catalogue was designed by Duchamp for an exhibition at the Sidney Janis Gallery, New York in the spring of 1953. The catalogues were wadded up and stored in a wastepaper basket for visitors to the exhibition. Many of them complained that they had trouble reading a catalogue in this challenging format.

Texts were by Hans Arp, Richard Huelsenbeck, Jacques-Henry Lévesque, Tristan Tzara; Arp's and Tzara's texts were translated by Duchamp.

REFERENCE:

Schwarz, Complete Works 543