He is ultimately most known for conceptual and even 'Dadaist' art later on, but as per most of these Monday Morning Art explorations, it's always interesting to see where our artiste du jour started their journey.
This piece is "Yvonne (in kimono)" (1901) and for me connected well with the poster-art of the Art Nouveau movement well underway by then. The dominant player in that space is of course Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, and there are certainly influences from him.
Here are two pieces by Toulouse-Lautrec with which Duchamp's work seems to share some common ground. (Those are two posters side-by-side, by the way. Sorry if they are a bit munged together - not intending to suggest they are one piece.)Those two are from a decade or so earlier. Indeed, Toulouse-Lautrec died in 1901, the year Duchamp created the "Yvonne" piece. Lautrec's style and approach would have been well known to his countryman Duchamp.
From his initial poster-like, classical portraiture and figures, Duchamp gets quickly into the abstract and cubist. His signature cubist piece for me is "Nude Descending Staircase" (1912) which has stuck with me since first seeing it in high school art classes. (My teacher was a guy named "Mr. Arts" believe it or not).
Duchamp explores a number of these geometrical compositions. They are seemingly time-lapse interpretations of a figure in motion. One can only speculate that he must have visualized creating these pieces whilst watching people pass about him as he himself travelled about France.
Here's another piece, "Sad Young Man in a Train" from 1911. Though the form is almost totally hidden, you can still see him and sense his motion, and it doesn't take too much imagination to see the down-turned head of the sad young man. Maybe just a modern context here, but it looks to me like he has a ballcap on, and hands in his pockets as he steps off the metro.
Duchamp is a notable and early force in the installation art movement. So I will also share two pieces I've had the pleasure to see in person and enjoyed.
The aptly named "Bicycle Wheel" (1913) I remember vividly seeing, but can't recall where. The credit on the picture at WikiArt says it's in a gallery in Israel where I have never been. Some day I'll figure that one out. Tweet to me if you've seen it too, and remember where. I'm thinking Toronto, Montreal or NYC perhaps.
Anyway, Duchamp likened the piece to a fireplace, and says he lived with it in his studio for a long time, where he would spin it and watch it, "like a fireplace."
This last piece, I do remember seeing in London at the Tate gallery. It has an unusual name that spawns a number of stories itself, let alone those from the object. It's called, "Why not Sneeze, Rose Sélavy" and was completed in 1921. Interestingly it has a signature of the artist dated 1964 on it as well. I'm sure there's a story behind that, which I don't know.
I had to look it up - and it turns out that Rose Sélavy is Duchamp's alter-ego. He was known to dress as a woman sometimes and used that name. A little more understood in today's world than it likely was back then. Perhaps easier as an artist, known for his avant-garde approach to the world, but a challenging time no doubt.
This piece contains cubes of marble that look very much like sugar cubes (I thought they were) and a thermometer and part of a sea creature. It speaks of temperatures cold and hot apparently, and something about the things we lock inside, and those that stick out through the confining bars.
I think Rose could relate.
