Bicycle

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Marcel Duchamp :
Bicycle Wheel
(Roue de Bicyclette / Bicycle Wheel)
Bicycle spoke with wheel, bar stool, oil paint
replica from 1951 (original from 1913 lost)
129.5 x 63.5 x 41.9 cm
The Sidney and Harriet Janis Collection,
Museum of Modern Art , New York City
(External link, please note copyrights )

Fahrrad-Rad (Roue de Bicyclette / Bicycle Wheel) is the first readymade and kinetic art object by Marcel Duchamp from 1913. According to Duchamp, the original landed on the trash, but has been reconstructed several times. The earliest surviving replica from 1951 is in the Sidney and Harriet Janis Collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York .

description

The bicycle wheel consists of a wooden, white lacquered kitchen stool, on the seat of which the upturned metal, black lacquered front wheel fork blade with the spoked wheel of a bicycle is mounted. The dimensions of the original are unknown, the replica from 1951 measures 129.5 × 63.5 × 41.9 cm, other reproductions differ.

Duchamp himself described Roue de Bicyclette as "an object of personal edification, the gadget for the artist in his studio." In a 1960 interview with the Milanese gallery owner and art historian Arturo Schwarz , he explained:

“The Bicycle Wheel is my first readymade, so much so that at first it wasn't even called a 'readymade'. It still had little to do with the idea of ​​the readymade. Rather it had more to do with the idea of ​​chance […] To set the wheel turning was very soothing, very comforting, a sort of opening of avenues on other things than material life of every day. I liked the idea of ​​having a bicycle wheel in my studio. I enjoyed looking at it, just as I enjoyed looking at the flames dancing in a fireplace. It was like having a fireplace in my studio, the movement of the wheel reminded me of the movement of the flames. "

“The bicycle wheel is my first readymade; so much so that it wasn't even called a 'readymade' at first. It had little to do with the ready-made idea. Rather, it had to do with the idea of ​​opportunity. […] Turning the wheel was very beneficial, very calming, more like an opening of paths to other things than material life every day. I liked the idea of ​​having a bicycle in my studio. I liked to look at it, just as I like to watch the dancing flames in a fireplace. It was as if I had a fireplace in my studio, the movements of the wheel reminded me of the movements of flames "

history

Duchamp manufactured the first bicycle wheel in 1913. In the same year, the first sketches for readymades such as Le Grand Verre , the large glass , were made; to the Erratum Musical , the first musical readymade, as well as to Broyeuse de chocolat no 1 , the chocolate mill no.1 . The first Roue de Bicyclette was probably lost with the beginning of the First World War and Duchamp's move to New York. The only evidence of the original wheel is a photograph of Duchamp's studio in Paris from the year it was made. The stool wheel is there next to other objects. The Duchamp biographer Calvin Tomkins , meanwhile , thinks that Duchamp's sister Suzanne saw it as “useless clutter” and simply threw it in the trash, which in turn gave Duchamp the idea of ​​only producing the ready-mades in limited numbers, because “the taste is the greatest Enemy of art. ”In fact, Marcel Duchamp only created around twenty ready-mades.

Readymades

"The curious thing about the Readymade is that I've never been able to arrive at a definition or explanation that fully satisfies me."

- Marcel Duchamp

With the readymades Duchamp expanded the collage technique of the Cubists into plastic and formulated the absurdity of Dadaist forms of expression that soon followed , but in contrast to the Dadaists "not turned away from the audience and with irony," says Calvin Tomkins. The bicycle wheel is often referred to as “the first readymade”, and Duchamp also spoke of “my first one” in some interviews, but according to Tomkins it was not a “visually indifferent object”. The artist had neither given the object a name in his Paris studio, nor even elevated it to an art object. Duchamp only worked out the idea of ​​turning everyday objects into art objects from 1915 in New York. Presumably Duchamp, who was reluctant to commercialize art, did not even think of selling the bicycle at all - nor did his other ready-made bottle dryers from 1914; the signed snow shovel In advance of the broken arm from 1915 and the legendary urinal fountain from 1917.

Because the bicycle wheel is a combination of two items, it is sometimes referred to as an “assisted readymade”. In fact, in later readymades (according to Fountain ) , Duchamp only spoke of "readymade" for essentially unchanged objects, while he referred to several assembled or processed found objects as "assisted readymade"; The readymade LHOOQ,   a postcard motif of the Mona Lisa reproduced umpteen times , to which he added a painted beard, he also called "rectified readymade" (improved readymade). In the glossary of his book Marcel Duchamp - The Art of Making Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (1999), Francis M. Naumann distinguishes between six types: “assisted readymade, imitated rectified readymade, printed readymade, readymade (or ready-made), rectified readymade, semi-readymade ". The bicycle wheel is both the first movable sculpture - Duchamp used the term mobile for it - and the first example of object art .

Replicas

In 1916 Duchamp manufactured a second bicycle wheel for himself, the whereabouts of which are also unknown. A first replica dated and signed by Duchamp - the third authenticated version - was presented in 1951 on the occasion of the Climax in XX th Century Art exhibition at the Sidney Janis gallery in New York. The object was signed by Duchamp in green oil paint with the words "Marcel Duchamp 1913/1959 [sic]". In 1961, the replica was featured in the landmark exhibition The Art of Assemblage at the Museum of Modern Art , where it is now in the Sidney and Harriet Janis Collection . There is a photo of Duchamp that was taken by the New York photographer Marvin Lazarus through the spokes of the bicycle wheel during the exhibition. The object, which has been elevated to a museum exhibit, has since been deprived of its function as a kinetic sculpture, as turning the wheel is prohibited in the museum. The exhibit was shown in 2004 during the exhibition Das MoMA in Berlin .

For the Moderna Museet in Stockholm , a 127 cm high replica was created in 1960 with the inscription "pour copie conforme Marcel Duchamp, Stockholm 1961". The inscription “pour copie conforme Marcel Duchamp” also bore another, 129 cm high replica from 1963, which was in the possession of the English artist Richard Hamilton in London . The object was lost on loan during an exhibition in 1993.

In 1964, Arturo Schwarz was authorized by Marcel Duchamp from Galleria Schwarz in Milan to manufacture, present and sell eight 126.5 cm high, as faithful as possible copies of the original, which Duchamp signed in black ink and labeled “ROUE DE BICYCLETTE, 1913 / EDITION GALERIE SCHWARZ, MILAN “. The objects are also provided with copper plates with the inscription “Marcel Duchamp 1964 1 / 8-8 / 8”.

In the Philadelphia Museum of Art , which has the largest contiguous collection of works by Marcel Duchamp, there is another replica of the bicycle wheel.

literature

  • Calvin Tomkins : Marcel Duchamp. A biography . Hanser, Munich a. a. 1999, ISBN 3-446-19669-2 . (German translation from the American by Jörg Trobitius; original title: Duchamp )
  • Francis M. Naumann: Marcel Duchamp - The Art of Making Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction . Harry N. Abrams, New York 1999, ISBN 0-8109-6334-5 (English).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Matthias Bunge: From the ready-made to the fat corner. Beuys and Duchamp - a productive conflict. In: Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt (ed.): Joseph Beuys. Connections in the 20th century. Darmstadt 2001, ISBN 3-926527-62-5 , p. 22 f.
  2. ^ Lars Blunck: Between Gadget and Re-made - The Revolving History of the Bicycle Wheel. toutfait.com, accessed April 3, 2009 .
  3. ^ Bicycle Wheel. Binghamton University Department of Art History, archived from the original January 17, 2005 ; Retrieved October 28, 2012 .
  4. ↑ a b Marcel Duchamp - biography, life and work. In: Calvin Tomkins: A Life Between Eros, Chess and Art. cosmopolis.ch, accessed on April 3, 2009 .
  5. ↑ Calvin Tomkins: Duchamp , p. 159
  6. ↑ Glossary: ​​Readymade. Tate Gallery, archived from the original on September 4, 2004 ; Retrieved August 15, 2010 . ; Thomas Girst: About readymades and “Asstricks”. toutfait.com, accessed August 15, 2010 .
  7. ^ Marcel Duchamp: Bicycle Wheel, New York 1951. Museum of Modern Art, accessed April 3, 2009 . Photo: Duchamp and the bicycle wheel, 1961

Illustrations

  1. ↑ Marcel Duchamp's studio in Paris , photograph from 1913
  2. ↑ Marcel Duchamp: LHOOQ , pen on postcard, 19.7 × 12.4 cm, 1919, reproductions in the Center Georges Pompidou, Philadelphia Museum of Art a. a .; in the English language Wikipedia