Marcel Duchamp (Primary Title)

Man Ray, American, 1890 - 1976 (Artist)

1931
American
Gelatin silver print
Sheet: 3 1/8 × 2 3/8 in. (7.94 × 6.03 cm)
2020.14

Man Ray’s closest friend and 20th-century art’s greatest iconoclast, Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968) devoted his entire career to debunking pre-existing ideas about art, which he believed should appeal to the intellect rather than the senses. This belief in the power of the mind also informed his passion for the game of chess, which he shared with Man Ray. This portrait was made in September 1931 for a publication project that the French artist was working on with the Russian-born chess master Vitaly Halberstadt. The pair co-wrote a chess treatise about endgame strategy that was published in 1932 and included Man Ray’s double portrait of Halberstadt and Duchamp seated across from each other with a chessboard hanging vertically between them. In this related 1931 photograph, which was taken after Man Ray had completed the double portrait, Duchamp has removed his jacket and unfastened his shirt-collar pin, presenting a relaxed and less formal image than the symmetrical composition that preceded it. 


Arthur and Margaret Glasgow Endowment
Man Ray: The Paris Years, VMFA, October 30, 2021 – February 21, 2022

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