Duchamp à Las Vegas

"In Las Vegas at the Golden Nugget, Marcel Duchamp moved the discussion from the Monte Carlo sytem to the desire to ``perhaps win a little something.'' The most careful distinction was maintained between his interest (he touched no equipment nor engaged directly into any game during the entire 48 hours), and my unexpressed desire. He suggested that we might continue to sit and chat, and from time to time he would suggest what I might do at various of the three related tables.
His suggested opening seemed random. `` Place some chips on that table and let's see what happens. '' After spins of the wheel - all chips lost - what followed would be the first of, from time to time, repeated patterns of ``let's relax and chat.'' I found things to talk about. He would nod and smile and watch the table.
Then came the first move of a repeating play, alternating with the rests. ``Why don't you try seven chips on corners of the high numbers ?'' ``Make diagonal pattens.'' ``Set them out diagonally.'' He indicated that the arrangements should make diagonals to the grid of the numbers. After the better part of an hour, during which time he became more specific in his suggesting of each number to play, of what I remember as nine chips at a time, what I realized was that I was indeed winning. Winning numbers were coming up with increasing regularity. His moods seemed to change not at all, wether I won or lost. I seem to recall, as the croupiers changed, one may have interested him, as in terms of when to play, than the others. One of the three tables seemed to interest him more than the rest, but I can't be sure. One way or another there was no doubt in my mind about it being HIS game. I did nothing but what he suggested and we stopped when he said it was a nice time to stop.
The chips I had purchased (I recall $20 worth) were of the small denomination, and my winning was more than 100-fold. The next day he gave me in an envelope a signed casino reproduction of a roulette table, saying ``I thought you should have something for your trouble last night.''

Walter Hopps, october 1983 (as quoted in Yves Arman, Marcel Duchamp. plays and wins. joue et gagne , Marval, Paris 1984).

A Bit More About Duchamp

"Rrose Sélavy et moi esquivons
les ecchymoses des Esquimaux aux mots exquis."
Marcel Duchamp (in Anemic Cinema )

Marcel Duchamp (Born Blainville, France 1887, Died Neuilly, France 1968) is one of the major art figures of the twentieth century. His early works are mainly paintings inspired by Cézanne and the Fauves. Around 1910 he starts to hang out with the "cubists" who he would often meet at his brothers' house on sundays in Puteaux (just outside of Paris). Many discussions revolved around the possibility of a "fourth dimension" and how to represent it. In 1912 he paints his famous Nude Descending a Staircase .

To his surprise it is refused at the "Salon des Indépendants". In the following year he abandons painting and takes a job at a library in Paris. There he continues his studies about the "fourth dimension" which will eventually lead to "le grand verre" ("large glass"). In the meantime his "Nude" causes a sensation in New York. In 1915 he arrives in New York and is greated as a celebrity. In the same year he exhibits his first Readymades : buy something in a store and show it in a gallery. His most famous Readymade is probably The Fountain :


From 1915 to 1923 he is mainly involved in the New York "Dada Movement" (with his friend Man Ray). After 1923 Marcel Duchamp decides to devote his life to chess and gambling, rather than making "art pieces". Also this period is characterised by his famous "silence". Indeed Duchamp consciously refused to comment about art and other issues. He has, however, given some rare interviews in the US and France. Before he died he decided to surprise us once more with his "latest work": Étant donnés: 1) La chute d'eau. 2) Le gaz d'éclairage. Duchamp stipulated in his testament that no picture shall be taken of the work for at least twenty years after his death. The piece is exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in Philadelphia. What could he possibly have created after more than forty years of "silence" and "artistic inactivity"? Since more than twenty years have passed since his death, you can now see Étant Donnés on the web at

http://www.val.net/~tim/etant-donnes.html

or locally

here


Some Quotes

I gleaned these from the following two books:

Duchamp, Duchamp du signe , Champs, Flammarion, Paris 1975, and

Yves Arman, Marcel Duchamp. plays and wins. joue et gagne , Marval, Paris 1984.

"Un tableau qui ne choque pas ne vaut pas la peine."

"Je me force à me contredire pour éviter de suivre mon goût."

"Art is produced by a succession of individuals expressing themselves; it is not a question of progress. Progress is merely an enormous pretension on our part."

"Readymade réciproque - se servir d'un Rembrandt comme planche à repasser."

"Puisque les tubes de peintures dont se sert l'artiste sont des produits manufacturés, c'est-à-dire tout faits, nous devons conclure que tous les tableaux du monde sont des Readymades aidés."

"Si tous les artistes ne sont pas des joueurs d'échecs, tous les joueurs d'échecs sont des artistes."

"Peut-on faire des oeuvres qui ne soit pas ``d'art''?"

"Pour moi il y a quelque chose de plus que oui, non, ou indifférent - c'est - par exemple - l'abscence d'investigations de ce genre."

"I have not stopped painting. Every picture has to exist in the mind before it is put on canvas, and it always loses something when it is turned into paint. I prefer to see my pictures without that muddying."

"A guest + a host = a ghost."

"There is no solution because there is no problem."

"En réalité, les problèmes les plus profonds ne sont pas des problèmes du tout, puisque : La solution du problème de la vie s'entrevoit dans la dispparition de ce problème."

"Chaque mot que je vous dis est stupide et faux."


In preparation: "Duchamp on Rendering".