Leon Battista Alberti's 1435 treatise De pictura influenced generations of painters by suggesting that a painting should be approached as an open window. By the twentieth century, the window had transformed into a motif that would test the limits of painting. With his 1920 "Fresh Widow"--a replica of a French window with panes covered in black leather--Marcel Duchamp postulated a farewell to illusionist painting. This publication presents the development of window painting by artists such as Robert Delaunay, Henri Matisse, Marcel Duchamp, Ren Magritte, Ellsworth Kelly, Eva Hesse, Gerhard Richter and many others.

Playing with Earth and Sky reveals the significance astronomy, geography, and aviation had for Marcel Duchamp - widely regarded as the most influential artist of the past fifty years. Duchamp transformed modern art by abandoning unique art objects in favor of experiences that could be both embodied and cerebral. This illuminating study offers new interpretations of Duchamp's momentous works, from readymades to the early performance art of shaving a comet in his hair. It demonstrates how the immersive spaces and narrative environments of popular science, from museums to the modern planetarium, prepared paths for Duchamp's nonretinal art. By situating Duchamp's career within the transatlantic cultural contexts of Dadaism and Surrealism, this book enriches contemporary debates about the historical relationship between art and science. This truly original study will appeal to a broad readership in art history and cultural studies.

Marcel Duchamp left behind a large volume of correspondence, more than a thousand documents forming a valuable archive of primary source materials on one the 20th Century's most important cutural figures. In his letters, Duchmap writes about his latest plans, works in progress, concepts such as the "ready-made," his passion for chess, the mundane details of life, as well as extraordinary ideas. The letters are reproduced in their entirety along with chronological and biographical data illumintaing the circumstances behind the letters. An essential volume for art historians and students of 20th Century culture.

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