The Writings Of Marcel Duchamp

Spot on, accessible, insightful and well researchef!

Great

For those who love to read literary criticism about the Surrealist movement, this book can be helpful, but beware of its scholarly nature. Much of the writing leans towards the technical, making the book rough going for the uninitiated. Nevertheless, this title contains plenty of useful information for both student and non-student alike.

This is more than just a sample of Duchamp's writings. Here are some basic reproductions (in black and white) of a number of Duchamp's works - or 'things' as he sometimes called them. There is the text of his talk, 'The Creative Act' given in April 1957 in Houston - as well as his thoughts on Readymades (Apropos of "Readymades"), dating from 1961...and much more. Duchamp's art is a kind of stormy marriage of the Visual and the Textual - and you really need this book to get anything like a grasp of Duchamp's achievement. His jottings and declarations are - by turns - maddeningly puerile and inspiring.The only limitation of the book form is that it systematises an aspiring a-systematic artist. But, whatever...