Inside the Large Glass

What does the art of Marcel DuChamp mean these days ? I suspect for knowledgable insiders, it means anything goes. Art is Life. After a hundred years it has proved an accurate prophecy. as a young artist I didn’t need convincing. it’s good form to visit artistic ancestors, as if a little bit will rub off on you. I happened upon some photographs I took on a pilgrimage to the Large Glass. I realized 2023 is the 100th anniversary of the year when Marcel finally called it quits on the Large Glass.

It’s now permanently standing in the Philadelphia museum of Art.. DuChamp has an entire room, his life’s work. With Etant Donnes mortared into a side wall. I also photographed of the other side of the Large Glass. It is where a humble signature is printed on the back of the chocolate grinder. which looks much different from the way it does on the front.

La Marier Mise Vu Par Ses Celebataires, Meme

The Bride Striped Bare By Her Bachelors, Even

MARCEL DUCHAMP 1915 • 1923

Eight years in the making. DuChamp liked to take his time. Etant Donnes clocked in at 25 years. The Large Glass is a nude. Even. In more mystical days I thought it held some alchemical cosmic secret. A see through postcard from another dimension. I suppose metaphorically it is with those sieves and grinders and gas and dust.

Water Mill Oculist Witnesses with holes and chance cracks. The myth is far larger than the object. along the way I had somehow intermixed it with the 2001 monolith. Also Zach Zarathustra playing in my head when I entered the holy of holies at the museum. I think I was surprised when the back didn’t mirror the front. Duh.

here was the adhesive and metal and wire. the Glue striped bare. maybe this was the way it was supposed to be looked at in the first place. the old fox having a laugh.

On one side, a story of desire and mystery. Art is life. On the other, an accretion of construction materials, blobs of stuff on broken glass pierced with lines and holes.

and the artists signature. thanks for the enigma

i’m looking through you with pixels now. Look what I found.

Happy Anniversary Marcel,