Marcel Duchamp and Max Ernst are two of the greatest names associated with Dada and Surrealism, the iconoclastic art movements of the early part of the twentieth century. This detailed study brings their work into close proximity for the first time, examining the structural interaction of "ready-made" belief systems in their productions (Catholicism, masculinism, hermeticism). These artists are revealed as precursors of our postmodern obsessions with male and female identity and cultural fragmentation.

A revised and expanded edition of one of the most original books ever written on the enigmatic artist Marcel Duchamp. Genius, anti-artist, charlatan, guru, impostor? Since he arrived on the scene in 1914, Marcel Duchamp has been called all of these. Almost no other artist of the twentieth century has inspired more passion and controversy, nor exerted a greater influence on art. At the same time, Duchamp continually challenged the very nature of art and strove to redefine it as conceptual rather than as product by questioning why the medium was mostly a "retinal" experience. Always the provocateur, Duchamp never ceased to be engaged, openly or secretly, in activities and works that transformed traditional artmaking. Through his works like Fountain; Bicycle Wheel; L.H.O.O.Q.; and Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2, Duchamp played with the idea of what art can be, opening new possibilities for future generations. This revised entry in the World of Art series, written by three leading experts on twentieth-century art, and published with support of Duchamp’s widow, is one of the most original books written on this enigmatic artist. Featuring a new chapter and preface, as well as updates throughout from specialist scholars who are active in their fields, this is the definitive introduction to Duchamp. Thoroughly illustrated, this volume combines thirty years of research by the authors and challenges history’s presumptions, misunderstandings, and pieces of misinformation about Marcel Duchamp and his legacy.

Surveys the life, work and times of Marcel Duchamp, one of the most influential of the 20th century artists.

A revised and expanded edition of one of the most original books ever written on the enigmatic artist Marcel Duchamp. Genius, anti-artist, charlatan, guru, impostor? Since he arrived on the scene in 1914, Marcel Duchamp has been called all of these. Almost no other artist of the twentieth century has inspired more passion and controversy, nor exerted a greater influence on art. At the same time, Duchamp continually challenged the very nature of art and strove to redefine it as conceptual rather than as product by questioning why the medium was mostly a "retinal" experience. Always the provocateur, Duchamp never ceased to be engaged, openly or secretly, in activities and works that transformed traditional artmaking. Through his works like Fountain; Bicycle Wheel; L.H.O.O.Q.; and Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2, Duchamp played with the idea of what art can be, opening new possibilities for future generations. This revised entry in the World of Art series, written by three leading experts on twentieth-century art, and published with support of Duchamp’s widow, is one of the most original books written on this enigmatic artist. Featuring a new chapter and preface, as well as updates throughout from specialist scholars who are active in their fields, this is the definitive introduction to Duchamp. Thoroughly illustrated, this volume combines thirty years of research by the authors and challenges history’s presumptions, misunderstandings, and pieces of misinformation about Marcel Duchamp and his legacy.

With an introduction by Robert Motherwell and an appreciation by Jasper Johns "Marcel Duchamp, one of this century's pioneer artists, moved his work through the retinal boundaries which had been established with Impressionism into a field where language, thought and vision act upon one another. There it changed form through a complex interplay of new mental and physical materials, heralding many of the technical, mental and visual details to be found in more recent art. . . "In the 1920s Duchamp gave up, quit painting. He allowed, perhaps encouraged, the attendant mythology. One thought of his decision, his willing this stopping. Yet on one occasion, he said it was not like that. He spoke of breaking a leg. 'You don't mean to do it,' he said. "The Large Glass. A greenhouse for his intuition. Erotic machinery, the Bride, held in a see-through cage-'a Hilarious Picture.' Its cross references of sight and thought, the changing focus of the eyes and mind, give fresh sense to the time and space we occupy, negate any concern with art as transportation. No end is in view in this fragment of a new perspective. 'In the end you lose interest, so I didn't feel the necessity to finish it.' "He declared that he wanted to kill art ('for myself') but his persistent attempts to destroy frames of reference altered our thinking, established new units of thought, 'a new thought for that object.' "The art community feels Duchamp's presence and his absence. He has changed the condition of being here."--Jasper Johns, from Marcel Duchamp: An Appreciation

Om den tyske kunstner Max Ernsts (1891-1976) liv og værker

Octavio Paz conveying “his awareness of Duchamp as a great cautionary figure in our culture, warning us with jest and quiet scandals of the menacing encroachment of criticism, science and even art.” —New York Times Book Review

How the exhibition spaces of Surrealism anticipated installation art.

"Describes with plenty of colour how surrealism, from Rene Magritte's bowler hats to Salvador Dali's watches, was born and developed." - The Times (UK) As she did for the Modernists In Montmartre, noted art historian and biographer Sue Roe now tells the story of the Surrealists in Montparnasse. In Montparnasse begins on the eve of the First World War and ends with the 1936 unveiling of Dalí’s Lobster Telephone. As those extraordinary years unfolded, the Surrealists found ever more innovative ways of exploring the interior life, and asking new questions about how to define art. In Montparnasse recounts how this artistic revolution came to be amidst the salons and cafés of that vibrant neighborhood. Sue Roe is both an incisive art critic of these pieces and a beguiling biographer with a fingertip feel for this compelling world. Beginning with Duchamp, Roe then takes us through the rise of the Dada movement, the birth of Surrealist photography with Man Ray, the creation of key works by Ernst, Cocteau, and others, through the arrival of Dalí. On canvas and in their readymades and other works these artists juxtaposed objects never before seen together to make the viewer marvel at the ordinary—and at the workings of the subconscious. We see both how this art came to be and how the artists of Montparnasse lived. Roe puts us with Gertrude Stein in her box seat at the opening of The Rite of Spring; with Duchamp as he installs his famous urinal; at a Cocteau theatrical with Picasso and Coco Chanel; with Breton at a session with Freud; and with Man Ray as he romances Kiki de Montparnasse. Stein said it best when she noted that the Surrealists still saw in the common ways of the 19th century, but they complicated things with the bold new vision of the 20th. Their words mark an enormously important watershed in the history of art—and they forever changed the way we all see the world.

This excellent overview of new research on Dada and Surrealism blends expert synthesis of the latest scholarship with completely new research, offering historical coverage as well as in-depth discussion of thematic areas ranging from criminality to gender. This book provides an excellent overview of new research on Dada and Surrealism from some of the finest established and up-and-coming scholars in the field Offers historical coverage as well as in–depth discussion of thematic areas ranging from criminality to gender One of the first studies to produce global coverage of the two movements, it also includes a section dealing with the critical and cultural aftermath of Dada and Surrealism in the later twentieth century Dada and Surrealism are arguably the most popular areas of modern art, both in the academic and public spheres