"NUDE DESCENDING A STAIRCASE."   Term Paper ID:30585 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Discusses the controversy surrounding Marcel DuChamp's 1912 painting.... More...

8 Pages / 1800 Words 6 sources, 25 Citations, MLA Format $32.00 Return to List of Papers

Paper Abstract: Discusses the controversy surrounding Marcel DuChamp's 1912 painting. Reaction to the artistically provocative painting and title at New York's 1913 Armory Show. Origins of DuChamp's painting. His ideas and experiments with abstraction and time-lapse photography. Rejection of "Nude" by the Cubists. His impact on American artists, critics and the public. Paper Introduction: Marcel Duchamp's Nude Descending a Staircase (1912) became one of the best known painted images of the twentieth century when it developed into a major focal point for the hilarity and outrage that surrounded the 1913 International Exhibition of Modern Art. On view in New York, in February and March, the exhibition--which is better known as the Armory Show, after its location--was presented by the Association of American Painters and Sculptors (AAPS) and assembled chiefly by two of its members, Arthur B. Davies and Walt Kuhn, who went to Europe to select the works. When the show opened it proved to be one of the wonders of the age, and a defining moment in the history of American art. The American public, and even the members of the AAPS, had never seen anything like these works, which ranged from Van Gogh and Gauguin to Picasso and Brancusi. Duchamp's painting, with its Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. Thetitle, which was painted directly on the picture, was one item the PuteauxCubists had suggested Duchamp might change. As Duchamp said of it,"my aim was a static representation of movement, a static composition ofindications of various positions taken by a form in movement--with noattempt to give cinema effects to the painting" (quoted in Tomkins, 79). Bonnie Clearwater. Marcel Duchamp's Nude Descending a Staircase (1912) became one of thebest known painted images of the twentieth century when it developed into amajor focal point for the hilarity and outrage that surrounded the 1913International Exhibition of Modern Art. Green concedes that "the effect is ironic andanalytic" but appears to do so mostly on Duchamp's word for this. Yet nothing provoked anywhere nearthe sensation caused by Duchamp's Nude Descending a Staircase which becamethe main attraction in the "Chamber of Horrors," as the Cubist room came tobe known (Brown, 136). 3: Contemporary and Retrospective Documents. . Works CitedAdes, Dawn, Neil Cox, and David Hopkins. What had originally been intended as anexhibition of what was best in the work of the AAPS artists and otherAmericans with a showing of new work from Europe became something muchbroader under their guidance. But if American artists were largely unprepared the American publicwas utterly astonished by the Armory Show. The American public, and even themembers of the AAPS, had never seen anything like these works, which rangedfrom Van Gogh and Gauguin to Picasso and Brancusi. Foryears afterward the picture was "repeatedly cited as a characteristicallyegregious example of modern art" but this only granted Duchamp a greatmeasure of fame and a certain cachet as an exemplar of the modern thatserved him well (Naumann, 18) For the artist its fame proved to be themeans of his passage to America and of a major change in his approach toart. In some ways his ideas resembledthose of the futurists but since the first Futurist exhibition did not takeplace in Paris until these pictures had already been painted Duchamp seemsto have developed the ideas on his own. The AAPS included two basic factions, theRealists who were led by Robert Henri and included such emerging luminariesas John Sloan and George Bellows, and the "more radical group" thatincluded Maurice Prendergast, the only true American post-Impressionist,William Glackens, and Davies, the somewhat eccentric Symbolist (Brown,235). But it is not difficult to see how the discussions of'simultaneity' among his Cubist circle would have given him the notion. But it is clear that Davies and Kuhn took over and began expandingthe show at an incredible rate. . The painting was certainly very radical compared with most ofthe American works displayed at the Armory, but it was a relatively tameexercise and did not really compare with the vision of some of the otherpainters. Some AAPS membersresigned in protest over the show. In Duchamp's case, of course, that would be a pertinent questionthroughout his long career. But Duchamp's painting was not acceptable to the Puteaux Cubists who,apparently believing that it "would be detrimental to the cause ofreasonable Cubism," rejected it for the 1912 Salon des Indйpendents(Tomkins, 81). Pictures from this era show himdeveloping an interest in the depiction of movement. Some took part in burlesqueexhibitions, others wrote about the travesties of the show, some accusedthe organizers of "a failure in democratic and patriotic virility," andothers of "advocating French propaganda," as Jerome Myers put it (quoted inGreen, 179). Davies was very impressed by all of thembut said of Marcel in particular, "That's the strongest expression I'veseen yet!" (quoted in Brown, 7 ). Thisprobably represented, as Brown speculates, a desire to produce somethingmore than the conformity of the usual art exhibit and to tap into "talentsand tendencies unknown," a hope perhaps that Americans could producesomething to rival the revolutionary works coming from Europe (86). 1 (1911), a painting thatfalls somewhere between the Sad Young Man and the second Nude in terms ofits depiction of movement. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1988.Naumann, Francis M. Miami Beach: Grassfield, 1991. Although he was disappointed, angry, and determined never to haveanything to do with 'groups' again, Duchamp did exhibit the painting at anumber of shows over the next year--including the relenting PuteauxCubists' important Section d'Or exhibition--and always without causing muchcomment. Sad Young Man on aTrain (1911), for example, shows Duchamp's venture into repetitive forms inwhich the barely discernible figure of the man recedes as if reflected in aself-replicating series of mirror images. The Armory Show did, indeed, have the desired effect (desired byDavies and Kuhn, at any rate) of bringing the revolution in European art toAmerican attention and American painting was never the same thereafter. More serious critics, such as artist and critic Kenyon Cox,argued that these new movements in art represented "a tendency to abandonall discipline, all respect for tradition, and to insist that art shall benothing but an expression of the individual [that began] with theImpressionists denying the necessity of any knowledge of form or structure"and had gotten worse as the decades passed (quoted in New York Times, 9March, 1913, document in The Armory Show, n.p.). Ed. Nor was the selection of the painting for the AAPS show in anyway remarkable. Indeed the invitations for workthat were sent out to American artists included a highly unusual requestthat they identify any unusual artists of their acquaintance since the AAPSwished to "encourage non-professional as well as professional artists,[and] to exhibit the result of any self-expression in any medium that maycome most naturally to the individual" (quoted in Brown, 86). Green, who isnot an art historian, provides a lively account of the Armory Show butsometimes gets his facts wrong--he says, for example, that Duchamp's Nudewas rejected for the Puteaux group's Section d'Or rather than the Salon desIndйpendents (1 3)--and remains more than a little biased against themodernists whose "mockery of the human, and especially the female, nude wasdeeply offensive to the American art-loving public [since] beautifulpaintings of nudes were an essential, perhaps the essential, part of thetraditional world of nineteenth-century art" (178). And it has long been open tospeculation whether Duchamp did, in fact, have some mischievous intentionin his selection. Marcel Duchamp. And,considering that as astonishing and revolutionary a painting as Matisse'sRed Studio, with its overwhelming color, strange perspective, and generalcharm (as it now appears), was in the Armory Show the retrospective viewercan only wonder at how tastes and perceptions of art have changed in theinterval. New York: Henry Holt, 1996. As Ades et al. In 191 -11 Duchamplived in the town of Puteaux with his brothers, who called themselvesRaymond Duchamp-Villon and Jacques Villon (both of whom became well-knownartists and exhibited in the Armory Show). It was one of four Duchamps chosen and from the Puteauxgroup the organizers took, as well, five sculptures by Duchamp-Villon, fiveworks by Villon, 2 paintings by Lйger, and others. remark, the painting "serves simultaneously toconstruct movement and to decompose form, introducing a new elasticity intoCubist-derived dislocations" (44). But the poems,jokes, and cartoons seldom seemed to hit the mark since, as one editorpointed out, "you can't spoof what you don't understand" (Brown, 137).Perhaps this was the reason why one Evening Sun cartoon, by J. On their whirlwind tourof the studios and collections Davies and Kuhn, shepherded at the time bythe American painter and writer Walter Pach, included the Duchamp-Villonbrothers studio in their quest. New York: Abbeville, 1988.Green, Martin. The painting's seeming disjuncture between titleand subject provoked both humor and earnest searching. The Story of the Armory Show. The radical section of the AAPS, however, was fairly tame and hadfar less knowledge of the current movements in European art than the trueAmerican avant-garde who gathered around Alfred Stieglitz's "291" galleryand included such painters as Marsden Hartley and John Marin. Griswold,was superior to the rest. 2nd ed. But there were also those who found the work genuinely disturbing anddistasteful. Torrey and Duchamp's Nude Descending a Staircase." West Coast Duchamp. In his "The Rude Descending a Staircase"Griswold showed rush-hour in the subway and the lively energy of his easyspoof of the modernist mode more than hints at how much he enjoyed thefreedom the attempt gave him (illustrated in The Armory Show, n.p.). New York: Thames and Hudson, 1999.The Armory Show International Exhibition of Modern Art 1913: Vol. New York: Arno, 1972.Brown, Milton W. But Green, in his account of theArmory Show, still finds that it differs from the studies of Marey andMuybridge because of "its partly ludicrous effect--as if a single-fileprocession had been abruptly halted and those behind were bumping intothose in front" (176). New York 1913: The Armory Show and the Paterson Strike Pageant. But most of the art shown at the Armory haslong since been accepted as serious work and, indeed, the more successfulpainters have been raised to the status of 'old masters'. They and a circle of theirfriends, including the painter Fernand Lйger, were fascinated by Cubism anddeveloped their own variant which was referred to as "reasonable" Cubism.But Duchamp, perhaps under the influence of his friend Francis Picabia,tended to go his own way somewhat. In the simpleignorance of the reaction to this work by artists and a public who were sounprepared for it there was, not unexpectedly, a failure to see which workswere most significant. In facthe still wants to 'see' the nude in the picture the way a good old-fashioned painting by a Bouguereau, a Boucher, or even a Renoir would havedone. Gradually, however, the fame of the piece and changes in tastein art have made it an image that is not difficult for most people toappreciate. It was impossible to say whatwould affect the audience most but, in general, they were drawn to theoddity of Cubism, "which was a totally new experience," and "repelled bythe revolutionary color and distortion" of the Fauves--and Matisse provedto be a particular target (Brown, 133). But Cox also voicedanother of the important objections that lurked behind the Americanpublic's general reaction and that was the question whether "these men[were] the victims of auto suggestion or charlatans fooling the public?"(quoted in New York Times, 9 March, 1913, document in The Armory Show,n.p.). And art became the richer forhis abandonment of "reasonable Cubism." But one should never be too hasty to assume that the painting is nowviewed with eyes re-schooled by time. Duchamp applied the "pseudo-scientific term 'elementary parallelism'"to describe the use of "repeated vertical forms across the surface ofcanvas" (Ades, Cox & Hopkins, 44). And he continued his experiments withthe idea in Nude Descending a Staircase, No. Whatever indications of movement there are inthe first painting are small, as can be seen in contrasting it with thefirst Nude where the act of walking down the stairs is strongly, ofstiffly, indicated--as if a mannequin had been positioned in this fashion.But with the famous Nude the amount of action, the apparent movement of allthe limbs in succession, creates a flurry of lines. When theshow opened it proved to be one of the wonders of the age, and a definingmoment in the history of American art. "Frederic C. The origins of Duchamp's painting are well understood since manyextant pieces from 1911-12 show the movement toward it. On view in New York, in Februaryand March, the exhibition--which is better known as the Armory Show, afterits location--was presented by the Association of American Painters andSculptors (AAPS) and assembled chiefly by two of its members, Arthur B.Davies and Walt Kuhn, who went to Europe to select the works. 11-23.Tomkins, Calvin, Duchamp: A Biography. The show had so many spectacular elementsfrom Europe that there was a fear "that the excitement of the Europeandisplay would be difficult to match and [a] notion that the national arthad been sold down the river" (Brown, 87). And, indeed, NudeDescending a Staircase (1912) does seem to combine the ideas of the twoschools. He was, however, influenced, as helater recalled, by the experimental time-lapse photographs of Etienne-JulesMarey and the serial photographs of natural motion made by EadweardMuybridge. The Italian group had included ridiculing the academicism ofCubism in their program and Duchamp's picture struck the Puteaux group as asimilar "mockery of Cubist esthetics" (Tomkins, 81). The deliberations of the AAPS regarding the show are mostlylost. As Tomkins notes, however, "no painting in history has been soovershadowed by its title" as Duchamp's Nude Descending a Staircase sinceit was the combination of the seeming classicism and eroticism of the titlewith the painting's incomprehensibility that set off the American reactionthat made it one of the most famous paintings in the world (79). the waythe American artists were cast in the shade" (Green, 178). Buteven today some people argue that it was, indeed, a "calamity . There was some dissension once it became clear what kind of showDavies and Kuhn had assembled. Major works by Van Gogh and some of the other post-Impressionists received far less attention than Duchamp, for example. To most people today the intentionsbehind the picture--the simultaneous depiction of a series of movements--isnot at all difficult to comprehend. As for Duchamp, his Nude Descending a Staircase may not have meritedanywhere near so much attention in the company of some of the great worksof the era, but it is understandable why the public fastened on it. Duchamp's painting,with its seemingly provocative title and abstraction at a level seldom seenbefore by its audience, was greeted with shouts of laughter and a leaveningof disgust. In part their rejection may have been based on thepicture's affinity with the work of the Futurists which was now on exhibitin Paris. In part because his 'Cubism' was rejected by the French Cubist groupas inadequate, and in larger part because his interests were redirected,Duchamp never painted in this mode again. Despite Davies' particular approbationno one expected the kind of reaction that Duchamp's painting was toreceive. The painting's greatest legacy resides in its position in theforeground of the arrival of radical new European painting styles inAmerica--and in its role in moving Duchamp to America and on to the moresignificant phases of his career. But the furor caused by the Armory Show itself would not have beenany less even if Duchamp's painting had not become the focus of so muchattention. For, as Tomkins remarks, this is not a great paintingand had it been called "something more prosaic--Study in Movement, say, orComposition #2--there would probably have been no furor at all" (79-8 ). Occupyingthe middle position in the American art scene, therefore, the Daviessection of the AAPS was in the right position to "ma[k]e the transitionfrom the old to the new possible" and this is what they accomplished in theArmory Show (Brown, 235). F. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.