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

Contents

contents list of illustrations xi introduction: prosecuting the Duchamp case 1 CHAPTER ONE an esoteric French adolescence for Duchamp: symbolist culture and occultism 13 CHAPTER TWO the invention of the modern alchemist-artist 37 CHAPTER THREE the cultural shaping of an artist-iconoclast: Duchamp in France, 1887–1915 65 CHAPTER FOUR Duchamp’s first experiments in esoteric and alchemical art, 1910–1912 97 x ALCHEMIST OF THE AVANT-GARDE CHAPTER FIVE Duchamp in New York with esoteric patrons and the Large G lass, 1915–1923 169 CHAPTER SIX alchemical emblematics and the ready-mades, 1913–1923 225 CHAPTER SEVEN the esoteric fourth dimension and laws of chance, 1895–1923 265 CHAPTER EIGHT the circle closes, 1923–1968 313 epilogue: the prosecution rests 371 notes 377 bibliography 423 index 459 ...