Raymond Duchamp-Villon

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
From left to right: Marcel Duchamp, Jacques Villon and Raymond Duchamp-Villon in the garden of Jacques Villon's studio in Puteaux, around 1913. Photo: Smithsonian Institution

Raymond Duchamp-Villon (born November 5, 1876 as Pierre-Maurice-Raymond Duchamp in Damville , † October 9, 1918 in Cannes ) was a French painter and sculptor .

Life

Duchamp-Villon was born in Damville , Eure near Rouen , in Haute-Normandie, the second son of Eugene and Lucie Duchamp. Of the six children of the Duchamp family - besides himself - three other siblings have become world-famous artists:

From 1894 to 1898 Duchamp-Villon lived with his brother Jacques in the Montmartre district in Paris , where he studied medicine at the Sorbonne from 1895 , but had to break off his studies in 1898 because he was chronically ill with rheumatism .

He decided to completely change his life plan and turned to sculpture from 1900. Starting as an autodidact with the creation of small statues, which he made with great craftsmanship, he oriented himself to Art Nouveau , Auguste Rodin , Neo-Classicism, here above all Aristide Maillol and Umberto Boccioni's Futuro-Cubism . In 1902 and 1903, he had his first exhibitions at the Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts . He began to use his double name as a stage name in order not to be confused with his brother and at the same time to be the "link" of both brothers.

Together with his brother Jacques, he had exhibitions in 1905 in the Salon d'Automne and in the Legrip Gallery in Rouen . The artistic reputation of Duchamp-Villon was meanwhile so great that he was appointed to the jury for sculpture at the Salon d'Automne in 1907. Duchamp-Villon, whose art was initially influenced by the work of Auguste Rodin , now strongly advocated Cubism .

In 1911, together with his brothers Jacques and Marcel and with other artists in Paris, he founded the Puteaux group , named after their place of residence Puteaux , where the brothers moved in 1907. In 1911 he exhibited at the Galerie de l'Art Contemporain in Paris and the following year organized an exhibition with his brothers at the Salon de la Section d'Or in the Galerie de la Boétie . All three Duchamp brothers took part in the important Armory Show in New York City in 1913 , which made a significant contribution to transporting the idea of modern art to the United States .

Two views of Le Cheval majeur (The Big Horse) , bronze, 1914, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

In addition to the Armory Show, Duchamp-Villon also took part in the exhibition in the André Groult Gallery in Paris in the same year . In 1914 he exhibited in the SVU Mánes gallery in Prague (February to March) and in the Der Sturm gallery in Berlin . During the First World War he did his military service in the French army as a medic, but continued to work on his sculptures, in particular on his main work: The Horse .

In the winter of 1916, while stationed in Champagne, Raymond Duchamp-Villon fell ill with typhus and was transferred to the military hospital in Cannes . He died in Cannes on October 9, 1918.

In 1955 "The Horse" was exhibited at documenta 1 in Kassel . In 1967 the last surviving brother Marcel organized a large family retrospective in Rouen with the title: Les Duchamp: Jacques Villon, Raymond Duchamp-Villon, Marcel Duchamp, Suzanne Duchamp. A similar exhibition later took place in the " Musée National d'Art Moderne " in Paris.

Works (selection)

  • 1913: Les amants (The Lovers), lead relief, h 35.5 cm, w 53 cm
  • 1914: Le Cheval majeur (The big horse), bronze from 1966, H. 148.5 cm, W. 92 cm, D. 80 cm; version initiated by Marcel Duchamp.

literature

Web links

Commons : Raymond Duchamp-Villon  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files