Publisher's Synopsis
The Duchamp scholars represented here are among the leading European and American critics of their generation. Their 11 essays offer diverse perspectives on the artist, focusing on the major issues surrounding his contribution: the philosophical implications of Duchamp's skepticism, eroticism, and paradoxical acceptance of contradiction; the events leading to the creation of the infamous "Fountain"; a rigorous reading of the "Large Glass" by Jean Suquet that appears here in English for the first time, as does Andre Gervais's voyage through Duchamp's puns, aphorisms, and workplays; a reinterpretation of Duchamp's late works as readymades; the influence of scientific models on his art, and of the gender-based reaching of drawing in the Third Republic on his - or Rrose Selavy's - peculiar use of mechanical drawing.
