Marcel Duchamp. To Be Looked at (from the Other Side of the Glass) with One Eye, Close to, for Almost an Hour. Buenos Aires 1918

Marcel Duchamp To Be Looked at (from the Other Side of the Glass) with One Eye, Close to, for Almost an Hour Buenos Aires 1918

  • MoMA, Floor 5, 508 The David Geffen Wing

The words forming this work’s title are inscribed (in the original French) on a strip of metal glued across the approximate center of the composition—seemingly inviting viewers to look through the lens haloed by concentric circles and mounted between two panes of glass. Peering through the convex lens “for almost an hour” is supposed to have a hallucinatory effect, as the view is dwarfed, flipped, and otherwise distorted. Duchamp delighted in the fact that the glass shattered while being transported, welcoming the mechanics of chance into the work.

Gallery label from 2019
Medium
Oil, silver leaf, lead wire, and magnifying lens on glass (cracked), mounted between panes of glass in a standing metal frame, 20 1/8 x 16 1/4 x 1 1/2" (51 x 41.2 x 3.7 cm), on painted wood base, 1 7/8 x 17 7/8 x 4 1/2" (4.8 x 45.3 x 11.4 cm)
Dimensions
Overall 22" (55.8 cm) high
Credit
Katherine S. Dreier Bequest
Object number
150.1953
Copyright
© 2019 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris / Estate of Marcel Duchamp
Department
Painting and Sculpture

Installation views

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The artist
Katherine S. Dreier (d. 1952), West Redding, Connecticut. [Purchased from Duchamp], by 1936
The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Katherine S. Dreier Bequest, 1953

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