MASP

Marcel Duchamp

Rotoreliefs, 1935-65

  • Author:
    Marcel Duchamp
  • Bio:
    Blainville-Crevon, França, 1887 - Paris, França ,1968
  • Title:
    Rotoreliefs
  • Date:
    1935-65
  • Medium:
    Polimatérico com instalação elétrica
  • Dimensions:
    17 x 37,5 x 37,5 cm
  • Credit line:
    Doação Galeria Arturo Schwarz
  • Object type:
    Assemblage
  • Inventory number:
    MASP.01231
  • Photography credits:
    João Musa

TEXTS


By Silvia Miranda Meira
In Paris in 1935, Duchamp made 500 unnumbered, unsigned sets of optical discs, 300 of which were mislaid during the War. In 1953, in New York, 1,000 sets of discs were made, also unnumbered and unsigned, of which 600 were destroyed accidentally. In 1959, in Paris, the artist reedited 100 copies of the set, numbered 1 to 100 and signed in ink “Marcel Duchamp.” Only 50 of these sets have been located. In 1963, 16 print runs numbered I to XVI were made in New York and signed in ink “M. D.”, on one side, and “Marcel Duchamp” on the other. Finally, in 1965, in Milan, 150 reprints of the 1953 edition of Rotoreliefs were produced by Schwartz Gallery under the supervision of Duchamp himself. The Rotoreliefs in this edition were numbered 1/150 to 150/150, signed in ink “M. D.”, dated and inscribed “ROTORCLICF 1935-1953/Edition Galerie Schwartz, Milan.” The Rotorelief in the Masp Collection belongs to this last series. After setting aside traditional art instruments such as brush and paint, Marcel Duchamp sought another dimension between painting and sculpture using visual effects and optical illusion. Ultimately he arrived at the Rotorelief, which enabled him to create an optical perception of relief by imparting motion to the artwork. Thus the gyrating optical discs render unexpected shapes of objects in apparent relief. Here the subject matter is the figurative rendition of certain human perceptions, from full, empty, upward, downward, inside, outside, straight, and circular to black and white, total light and total darkness. The idea of motion is transmitted to the observer’s vision since the brain integrates the different shapes as a continuum. The disc illustrations feature seemingly motionless and consequently distant, centralized points and other, slightly decentralized points that appear to move at a faster or slower speed, depending on the viewer’s distance from the work. Beginning with Coffee Grinder (1911), Bicycle Wheel (1913), one of his first ready mades, and Chocolate Grinding Machine # 2 (1914), Duchamp’s methodical reflection on the circle originated optical paintings and led the way to The Large Glass, which involved preliminary theoretical studies, took eight years to paint, and remained unfinished in the opinion of many scholars. His work in the 1920s, including his first abstract films, also made use of circles and spirals to create optic illusions based on the functioning of the retina and the structures involved in the perception of light by the mind. The Rotoreliefs therefore are the dynamic materialization of a previous series of experiments carried out by Duchamp which looked into the static representation of movement. The Rotorelief set was shown for the first time in 1935, at the annual trade show for inventors held in Paris jointly with the XXXIII Concours Lépine, next to everyday utensils and other objects on sale. In 1936, at the exhibition Fantastic Art, Dada, and Surrealism which Alfred Barr organized at the Museum of Modern Art of New York, the work was presented as one of the eleven most representative creations in Duchamp’s career. Indeed, the artist’s optical research and production heralded the kinetic art of the 1950s and 60s.

— Silvia Miranda Meira, 1998

Source: Luiz Marques (org.), Catalogue of the Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand, São Paulo: MASP, 1998. (new edition, 2008).



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