MoMA
Posts tagged ‘Marcel Duchamp’
January 15, 2016  |  Artists, Collection & Exhibitions
Marcel Duchamp’s Readymades: Celebrating the Centennial
Marcel Duchamp’s letter to Suzanne Duchamp, January 15, 1916. Jean Crotti papers. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution

Marcel Duchamp’s letter to Suzanne Duchamp, January 15, 1916. Jean Crotti papers. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Read the full translation below

In 1913 Marcel Duchamp topped a kitchen stool with a bicycle wheel, “fork down” through a hole he had drilled in the seat, and parked this wheel-on-a-stool in his Paris studio. “I didn’t have any special reason to do it,” he later recalled.

January 30, 2015  |  Artists, Collection & Exhibitions
Bread Tins and Thumbtacks: A Gallery Tour with The Forever Now Artist Michael Williams

The artists featured in The Forever Now: Contemporary Painting in an Atemporal World all draw inspiration from a dizzying array of art-historical styles and processes. Two years ago, in conjunction with the exhibition Inventing Abstraction, 1910–1925, MoMA asked contemporary artists to discuss works in the show that they found compelling. We thought it might be fun and enlightening to revisit this approach and invite several artists from The Forever Now into the Museum’s collection galleries to see which works pique their interest.

April 21, 2014  |  This Week at MoMA
This Week at MoMA: April 21–27

Digging deep into art historical legacies is a prevailing theme in this week’s roundup of events at the Museum, and there’s truly someone for everyone. Whether you’re able to visit the galleries or joining us remotely, dropping in for a 60-minute tour or committing to a weekend course, it’s a great time to engage with our collection in a way you might not have considered before. Best of all, many programs are free with Museum admission.

December 20, 2013  |  Five for Friday
Five for Friday: Let It Snow!

You may have heard that in the New York City area we’ve already had our first (and second!) snowfall of the season, and while I’m decidedly not in the “dreaming of a white Christmas” camp, I can appreciate the fleeting beauty of pristine winter scenery. Taking a peek into MoMA’s collection turns up many works befitting the season—some that are arguably better than the real thing, and others that are a reminder of the “joys” of winter weather.

MoMA Celebrates 1913: Marcel Duchamp’s 3 Standard Stoppages

MoMA’s celebration of the landmark year 1913 concludes today with the 23rd installment in our series of videos highlighting important works from 1913 in the Museum’s collection.

March 28, 2013  |  Artists, Collection & Exhibitions, Fluxus
Exhibiting Fluxus: Decomposition Contained in Wait Later This Will Be Nothing: Editions by Dieter Roth

The title of the exhibition Wait Later This Will Be Nothing: Editions by Dieter Roth befits a number of the works on display that are slowly decomposing in front of spectators’ eyes. This post is dedicated to one particular pocket-sized perishable—Roth’s Pocket Room (Taschenzimmer) from MoMA’s Gilbert and Lila Silverman Fluxus Collection. In 1968, Dieter Roth—who challenged the boundaries of printmaking and publishing by integrating cheese, fruit, sausage, chocolate, and other organic materials into the process—released an unlimited edition comprising a banana slice on stamped paper tucked inside of a plastic container small enough to fit into the owner’s pocket.

November 28, 2012  |  Collection & Exhibitions, Publications
Duchamp, Rauschenberg, and Assemblage: A Preview of Fast Forward: Modern Moments 1913 >> 2013
Cover of <em>Fast Forward: Modern Moments 1913&gt;&gt;2013</em>

Cover of Fast Forward: Modern Moments 1913>>2013

Fast Forward: Modern Moments 1913 >> 2013, published to accompany the latest exhibition in The Museum of Modern Art’s ongoing collaboration with the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, details six significant moments in art history since the beginning of the 20th century.

Frustrated? Confused? Have More Questions than Answers? Great!

A MoMA visitor examines Marcel Duchamp’s Bicycle Wheel. (New York, 1951 [third version, after lost original of 1913]. Metal wheel mounted on painted wood stool. The Sidney and Harriet Janis Collection. © 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris/Estate of Marcel Duchamp)

Looking at modern and contemporary art can provoke a lot of questions. Struggling to understand or relate to it is not unusual, and in fact many artists view those reactions as part of the art. Marcel Duchamp famously said that “the creative act is not formed by the artist alone; the spectator brings the work in contact with the external world by deciphering and interpreting its inner qualifications and thus adds his contribution to the creative act.”

December 15, 2011  |  Events & Programs, Family & Kids
School Visits Educators on Film

Sometimes, rather than tying everything together, I like to end lessons by exploding everything. I like to leave students craving more answers, more questions.
– Lisa Libicki, School Visits Educator

April 13, 2010  |  An Auteurist History of Film
The French Avant-Garde of the 1920s

Entr’acte. 1924. France. Directed by René Clair

Entr’acte. 1924. France. Directed by René Clair

These notes accompany the French Avant-Garde of the 1920s program, screening April 14, 15, and 16 in Theater 3.

Charles Sheeler comes to mind as one of the few American artists who dabbled in film in the 1920s. Whereas in Germany the mainstream Expressionist cinema was itself avant-garde, and in Italy the society became surreal following Mussolini’s rise to power in 1922, France presented a unique instance of a free interplay of filmmakers with other visual artists. This program is an attempt to capture some of this interaction and to suggest how it might have benefited French culture. It also suggests that a society where the movies were totally dominated neither by commerce nor by the state provided an appealing model. It was certainly beneficial to Iris Barry, the founder of The Museum of Modern Art Film Library, to be able to cite names like Man Ray, Duchamp, Léger, and Dalí in establishing the high aspirations and legitimacy of film when appealing for funds from patrons who might look askance at Douglas Fairbanks, Charles Chaplin, or Walt Disney. (It was left for us future generations to make cogent arguments for Otto Preminger, Clint Eastwood, and John Waters.)