Marcel Duchamp did everything and thus he was able to do anything. His final work was an example of his marvelous devotion to the creation of art. When he threw himself at chess and became a master, he said that he would never create monumental art again. Everyone believed him and put out books about his work before he had died. His secret was a piece that spanned several decades’ worth of hidden construction: Given: 1. The Waterfall, 2. The Illuminating Gas. While many artists try anything, Duchamp is one of the validated few who could do everything.
Born of Marie-Caroline-Lucie Duchamp and Justin-Isidore Duchamp on July 28th, 1887 in Normandy, Marcel Duchamp had art as a birthright. Descended from an engraver and painter, he and his siblings grew up immersed in it. Of six children, the eldest four pursued everything from painting to sculpting.
At 15, Marcel was painted the Impressionist scenes Church at Blainville and Landscape at Blainville. He departed from painting and worked on intricate studies of his siblings. A few years later his landscapes and portraits were included in shows. In 1904 he joined his brothers in Paris. Up to 1911, his portfolio amassed a varied number of studies from the monochromatic Red Nude to the well rendered yet still loose Portrait of the Artist’s Father. In 1911 his work took a turn towards Cubism and in that one year he produced over 18 remarkable paintings, including the studies which later lent to his infamous Nude Descending a Staircase. Cubist artists were not keen on his style, commenting that it was more on trend with futurism. Scores of paintings later, in 1914, he departed from the medium and turned to finding new forms of expression.
Viewing specific sculptures like To Be Looked at (from the Other Side of the Glass) with One Eyes, Close To, for Almost and Hour and the etching Oculist Witnesses were indicators of what his work would become. Many of his pieces were studies for longer, more lengthy works such as the 1914 painting Chocolate Grinder in his piece The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even (1915-1923). Work like Bicycle Wheel and Comb exemplify his use of the readymade as a medium. In 1935 he did a series of rotoreliefs. Sixteen Miles of String was one of several installations. His production of work slowed in the Twenties and almost stopped in the late Forties and was limited to all but a few studies.
Duchamp’s love of chess started at around the same time his art career did. In 1923 he became much more serious in his devotion to the game and started entering tournaments. Through the Twenties he climbed in rank throughout Europe and participating heavily in the community by designing posters for events and writing articles for magazines. He approached chess as any other piece of art and played games for their beauty and not their brutality.
During the decades that he seriously pursued chess, his output of art was minimal and limited mostly to studies of Rodin and Ingres. After The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even, his individual work was more playful than a serious endeavor. To the world it was clear that he was done with art and it was time to consider his portfolio as a retrospective.
The sculpture Given the Illuminating Gas and the Waterfall wasn’t considered too highly when it debuted as it wasn’t placed in context with the installation it was a study for. It was one part of several sculptures in preparation for Given: 1. The Waterfall, 2. The Illuminating Gas; an installation revealed after Duchamp’s death in 1968. While he worked at becoming a master chess player, he worked on the installation in a hidden room in his New York studio. In 1965 he moved the whole secret project to a commercial building and finished it. The piece was assembled from found bricks and twigs, a door from a house in Spain, a hand constructed life sized mannequin, and a mural manipulated from photos Marcel took on a vacation in 1946, the time when he started this final piece. He had to slowly collect all the materials as to not raise awareness of what he was doing. The leather on the first mannequin cracked and the construction had to be restarted.
All while constructing it, he created a binder detailed the reconstruction which would eventually happen upon its discovery. It was his climax but it wasn’t just for him. The piece can only be viewed in one specific way and has only been photographed in one way. Images of the reinstallation are nonexistent. He left instructions and now the piece is permanently installed in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. In his manual he sketched how the doorway would look once permanently installed. Hundreds of photos and 35 pages of notes highlight the fifteen outlined stages of assembly. In the museum it is viewed as an old door and as you approach it a light turns on and you peer through holes in the wood. Through the peephole is a woman laying nude prone on the grass, holding a gas lamp in her hand. Her face is obscured by the silhouette of the brick.
The patience chess requires instilled the discipline required to embark on such a lengthy piece. There is no doubt in the honesty of his devotion to the game, but his pursuit helped ensure the determination needed to keep working on his masterwork. Having grown up with art, there was no other lifestyle present for him. Duchamp’s privacy on the matter of Given: 1. The Waterfall, 2. The Illuminating Gas could have only been achieved by such a childhood. In this day in age, only recluses are able to complete masterpieces that no one else knows about. Duchamp did everything and so he able was to achieve anything.
D’Harnoncourt, Anne and McShine, Kynaston. Marchel Duchamp. New York: The Museum of Modern Art and Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1973.
Tomkins, Calvin. Duchamp: A Biography. New York: Henry Holt and Company, Inc. 1996.
Schwarz, Arturo. The Complete Works of Marcel Duchamp. New York: Delano Greenidge Editions, 2000.
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