Alchemist of the Avant-Garde: The Case of Marcel Duchamp

Notes

notes INTRODUCTION 1. As is apparent from this bibliography, the bulk of mostly enthusiastic writing about Duchamp has been and continues to be generated in the U.S. In Duchamp’s homeland, France, a healthy measure of Gallic skepticism still prevails. A generous subvention, allowing for publication of the complete text of this monograph, was kindly provided by the H.M.S. Phake-Potter Literary Foundation (see Bibliography). 2. Kuenzli and Naumann. For the history of Duchamp’s nearly unprecedented apotheosis to celebrity status, from ca. 1960–1995, see Daniels, 158–65 (“Der späte Ruhm”); Jones, especially chapters 2 and 3. For details on the early stages of Duchamp’s rise to fame in America, ca. 1950 and after, see Roth, “MD and America,” 102ff. 3. Jones, 49; see also Daniels, 233ff. (“Theoretische Umkreisung”): “Vorläufiges Resümee: Der Fall Duchamp entwickelt sich zu einem Methodenparadigma für die Kunstgeschichte des 20. Jahrhunderts” (238). 4. The first sharp attack of the alchemical interpretation was mounted in 1976 by Jean Clair, “La fortune critique de MD” (an eight-page essay) and much extended in 1992 by Dieter Daniels, 238–57 (“Die Suche nach dem Schlüssel: zum Beispiel Alchemie”). 5. So designated by Octavio Paz; see his MD, or the Castle of Purity. 6. Lebel, 73. 7. Teeny’s and Paul’s denials appear in Ramírez, Duchamp, 301–02 n. 7. 8. What follows is quoted as transcribed in de Duve, Definitively Unfinished MD, 69–82, 463. 9. For a sequential exposure of these purposive deceptions, particularly the central myths of Duchamp’s “disinterestedness,” “indifference,” and “withdrawal,” see Jones, 66–103. 10. For the influence exerted by Burnham’s esoteric (and erratic) interpretations of Duchamp’s work among avant-garde artists, although not within the scholarly community, see Roth, “MD and America,” 204–15. On the other hand, for a doctoral dissertation considerably extending Burnham’s kabbalistic thesis, see Doepel, “Arcane Symbolism.” 11. Duve, Definitively Unfinished MD, 168. 12. Burnham, 89. For a scholarly study of the secretive tradition overall, see Eamon. 13. Duchamp, as quoted in Tomkins, The Bride and the Bachelors, 18. 377 14. See Henderson, Duchamp in Context, 231–32 (“A Note on the Construction of Duchamp as Alchemist”). 15. Ibid., xxii, 180. 16. Daniels, 255: “Alle [dieser] Autoren, außer Ulf Linde [to be cited here later], operieren jedoch nur mit formalen, ikonographischen Vergleichen, ohne nach den Duchamp historisch zugänglischen Quellen oder Einflüssen zu fragen [:] müßte man sowohl überzeugende Parallelen inhaltlicher Art als auch präzise Belege angeben können.” 17. Ibid., 256: “Aber mit Sicherheit läßt sich in der Alchemie nicht der universelle Schüssel zu seinem Werk finden” (emphasis mine); Moffitt’s work is cited as a typical “Beispiel” of such earnest but useless approaches (345 n. 75). 18. For a typical Symbolist-era summation (likely known to Duchamp) of the strictly modernist “rapports de l’Alchimie et de la Kabale,” see Jollivet-Castelot, Comment on devient alchimiste, 49–58; for, likewise (à la Duchamp), a modernist “Le Tarot Alchimique,” see 59–70. 19. Stauffer letter, in Gough-Cooper and Caumont, Ephemerides, August 19, 1959. 20. Another “ambiguous reply,” recently newsworthy, is President Bill Clinton’s self-serving definition of fellatio as “not sex” (but he was only a politician, not an artist-alchemist). 21. Cabanne, Brothers Duchamp, 101. 22. Gough-Cooper and Caumont, Ephemerides, October 2, 1958. 23. Gough-Cooper and Caumont, Ephemerides, June 16, 1966. 24. Matisse, “Some More Nonsense,” 76–82. 25. Teeny Duchamp, in Daniels, 269. 26. See Daniels, 271, 347 n. 105; for the White Box, see Duchamp, L’Infinitif. 27. All citations to Duchamp’s works, such as “(MD-134),” refer to the standard catalogue raisonné compiled by Jean Clair in 1977. 28. Tomkins, Duchamp, 249 (with illustration). 29. These confessional features—otherwise avoided in the standard Duchamp literature—are exposed in Brilliant, 171–74 (fig. 85; also illustrated in color on his book cover). Brilliant does not, however, expose the specific connection to be drawn between the “$2,000 REWARD” motto and Dreier’s recent purchase of the Large Glass. 30. Gough-Cooper and Caumont, Ephemerides, December 16, 1954. 31. Poisson, Théories et Symboles des Alchimistes, 3. 32. Smithson, quoted in Roth, “Smithson on Duchamp,” 47. 33. Graham, Conversations, 3 (and I thank the author for sending me this incunabulum). 34. I owe this information to Alan Jutzi (Rare Books Collection, Huntington...