Mary Reynolds

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Mary Reynolds (born Mary Louise Hubachek , * 1891 in Minneapolis , † September 30, 1950 in Paris ) was an American bookbinder and partner of Marcel Duchamp . With her work, she was a companion of the Dadaist and Surrealist movement in Paris. Her estate, the "Mary Reynolds Collection", is in the holdings of the Art Institute of Chicago .

Life

Mary Louise Hubachek was the daughter of lawyer Frank Rudolph Hubachek and his wife Nellie Brookes Hubachek. Her brother was Frank Brookes Hubachek. After finishing the public school in Minneapolis, she attended Vassar College in 1909 , where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1913. She returned to Minnesota and took courses at the university.

Mary Hubachek met Matthew Givens Reynolds, the son of a St. Louis judge . They married on July 24, 1916 and lived in Greenwich Village , the center of bohemianism in the United States. Matthew Reynolds was drafted into military service in the First World War in November 1917, survived the war, but died in January 1919 as a result of a flu infection . Mary Reynolds decided to start a new life, moved to Paris in 1921 and settled in Montparnasse , an area that reminded her of Greenwich Village with its artist colonies. Shortly afterwards she met the photographer Man Ray and the composer Virgil Thomson . When the American artist Laurence Vail married her friend Peggy Guggenheim in 1922 , the Parisian scene was amazed because they believed Vail and Reynolds were engaged. During this time she received training from the Paris bookbinder Pierre Legrain and created covers for books by artist friends such as Max Ernst , Man Ray, Paul Éluard , André Breton , Jean Cocteau and Salvador Dalí .

Mary Reynolds and Marcel Duchamp already knew each other from Greenwich Village and renewed their acquaintance in 1923, from which a relationship grew. However, since Duchamp loved his freedom and led an unconventional life, he insisted on keeping the relationship a secret. That changed after his brief marriage to Lydie Sarazin-Levassor, which ended in divorce in 1927. The artistic and literary avant-garde such as Duchamp, Djuna Barnes , Samuel Beckett , Constantin Brâncuși , André Breton , Jean Cocteau , Paul Éluard , Janet Flanner , Peggy Guggenheim, James Joyce , Mina Loy met in their little house in rue Hallé No. 14 , Man Ray and others. Duchamp spent a lot of time in her house, but continued to keep his independence, a small studio in Paris on the seventh floor of a house on rue Larrey, where he mostly spent the evening. They made several trips together and spent a few years in Villefranche-sur-Mer in August . In 1931, Brâncuși joined them and took the picture for the cover of Duchamp's chess book. In 1933 she met in Cadaqués on Salvador Dalí and his wife Gala .

When World War II broke out, Reynolds and Duchamp parted ways. He left the Nazi- occupied France in 1942 for New York, while Reynolds had decided against her friend's requests to stay in Paris. She joined the Resistance and supported, for example, the artist Jean Hélion , whom she offered shelter in her apartment after escaping from a POW camp. Her code name was "Gentle Mary". Reynolds did not flee Paris until the summer of 1942 when she discovered that she was being watched by the Gestapo . In September she reached Lyon and after the occupation by German troops in November , she fled with a small group, led by a mountain guide, across the Pyrenees to the Spanish border. On the strenuous three-day march, she only carried the most essential things with her, including a scroll with paintings by her friend Man Ray . Two of the refugees were arrested, and Reynolds, whose papers appeared suspicious, were also not allowed to leave. With the help of an unknown Spanish gentleman, she managed to travel to Madrid , where she arrived on December 14th. On January 6, 1943, she reached New York by plane. Reynolds and Duchamp spent the wartime in Greenwich Village and reunited old friends such as Friedrich Kiesler and Alexander Calder . Man Ray was delighted to receive the role with his paintings.

After the war, Duchamp stayed in New York, while Reynolds, against his wishes, returned to Paris, where she worked for View magazine until 1947 . She only created a few bookbinding work. The war had scattered Surrealist artists across the globe, and Breton's influence on the movement had diminished. Reynolds' health had suffered from the effects of the war. On September 30, 1950 she died of cancer in her Paris home in the presence of Duchamp .

Estate in the "Mary Reynolds Collection"

After her death, Duchamp took care of her affairs and sent her estate, including around 70 bound works, to her brother, who handed them over to the Art Institute of Chicago in 1951 in memory of his sister. The estate is kept in the Institute's Ryerson & Burnham Libraries . The "Mary Reynolds Collection", with its bookbinding work and the more than 500 exhibits of Dadaist and surrealist documents - one example is the surrealist artist magazine Minotaure - that Reynolds had collected as a member of many artistic and literary circles during her life in Paris, was first published in Shown in 1956. There are many complete issues among the magazines.

plant

Marcel Duchamp, Mary Reynolds, Alfred Jarry
King Ubu , 1935
Artist book
The Art Institute of Chicago, Mary Reynolds Collection, Chicago

Link to the picture
(please note copyrights )

Mary Reynolds was known for the unusual variety of materials she used for her bindings, such as perforated copper, foam rubber, and toad skin. To the bound of their works, for example, of the Paris bookstore belonged to Shakespeare and Company got edition of James Joyce ' Ulysses , Henry Miller both Tropics (tropics) , twelve works by Raymond Queneau , six of Alfred Jarry and a thin band with Duchamp puns.

The best-known example of Reynolds' bookbinding work is the artist's book designed by Marcel Duchamp and produced by Reynolds , the play Ubu Roi ( King Ubu ) , by Alfred Jarry . The front and back of the goatskin binding are each formed from a cut-out "U". The leather back shows the letter "B". If the front and back cover are opened at a 90-degree angle to the book block , they form the word "UBU" with the spine. The flyleaves are made of black marbled silk, and a golden crown adorns the first flyleaf, which is visible through the cut out "U" of the cover. The two artists created an identical work for their friends American collectors Walter and Louise Arensberg , which is located in the Philadelphia Museum of Art .

Appreciation

In addition to the “Mary Reynolds Collection” at the Art Institute of Chicago, it is Virgil Thomson - made famous for setting works by the writer Gertrude Stein - who is reminiscent of Mary Reynolds. As early as 1930 he dedicated a piece to her with her name in his series Five Ladies (Violin and Piano) . The other ladies in this series include Alice B. Toklas , Anne Miracle, Cynthia Kemper and Yvonne de Casa Fuerte.

Secondary literature

Web links and sources

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Calvin Tomkins: Marcel Duchamp. A biography , p. 341 f
  2. ↑ Calvin Tomkins: Marcel Duchamp. A biography , p. 341
  3. ↑ Maroquin [1] , namely the ephemeral Levant - and the durable so-called Niger - goat leather Archived copy ( Memento from November 19, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ↑ rightreading.com : Ubu Roi, book binding by Marcel Duchamp and Mary Reynolds
  5. ↑ virgilthomson.org ( Memento from September 12, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 12 kB): Virgil Thomsons Work
personal data
SURNAME Reynolds, Mary
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hubachek, Mary Louise (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American bookbinder
DATE OF BIRTH 1891
PLACE OF BIRTH Minneapolis
DATE OF DEATH September 30, 1950
Place of death Paris