“Can one make works that are not of art?”. This was the significant query introduced by Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968) for the first time in 1913. Prompted by this question, the artist departed from traditional painting to explore a new artistic expression, favoring conceptual over visual forms. Thus, was born the first ready-made: a bicycle wheel mounted on a three-legged stool.
In this perspective, the catalog of the exhibition By or Of Marcel Duchamp or Rrose Sélavy showcases a distinctive ready-made that stands alone without subsequent editions: Door: 11, rue Larrey (1927). Following this, the artist’s oeuvre includes works where chance becomes the true driving force behind creation: Erratum musical, a musical piece whose sequence of notes follows a purely random order, as well as the very famous Mariée mise à nu par ses célibataires, même (Large Glass) (1915-1923), anticipated by the small work entitled To Be Looked at (from the Other Side of the Glass) with One Eye, Close to, for Almost an Hour (1918).
Another significant theme addressed in the exhibition and emphasized in the catalog is Duchamp’s mastery in reproducing his own works, as in pieces like La Boîte Verte and La Boîte-en-Valise. The exhibition itinerary culminates with further illustrations of Duchamp’s oeuvre, such as the catalog of the Exposition Internationale du Surréalisme (1959), a photographic compilation by Ugo Mulas commissioned by the Galleria Schwarz in Milan (1964) for the exhibition Marcel Duchamp: ready-mades, etc., and the complete collection of 18 etchings created in the 1960s to illustrate the two volumes of The Large Glass and Related Works, portraying the individual components of the Large Glass prior to its unfortunate damage during transportation in 1927.