The Simultaneous Nudes of Marcel Duchamp

[Pierre Tavlitzki]

In 1912, the limelights of art were accessible to young artists. Aged 25 years only, Marcel Duchamp disrupts not only all the traditions but also the avant-gardes.

Early that year, he made his first major breakthrough, brilliantly, with the Nude Descending a Staircase. It went fully against the Cubism, that was looking for volume. For Duchamp, the fourth dimension is movement. His character is shown several times on this painting. His human body shape is imprecise, but the different positions attest to the human attitude in motion.

Nobody had such thoughts before him. This work relies on the photographic analysis of movement by Muybridge and Marey, but transparency and blur of the body comes from the X-ray pictures, known for less than twenty years.

Also Duchamp intends to scandal, or at least to do the opposite of all his contemporaries. It is encouraging him to prepare immediately his next work, The King and Queen surrounded by swift nudes.

Here, several characters are each shown only once, but they intermingle in the positions which, according to the artist, are suggesting the movement. The impact was less, but the first preparatory drawing, 32 x 40 cm, is an important indicator of awareness of the movement by graphic artists. The handwritten title of the drawing (2 naked, one strong and one swift) indicates that Duchamp had not yet chosen the title of his future artwork. It is to be sold by Christie's in London on June 23 The estimate, 800 K£, is conservative.

Shaken by Picasso, Duchamp, Kandinsky, Malevich and all those who were immediately inspired by these pioneers, the art world got in those years an irreversible trend, and an incredible surge of creativity.

[Pierre Tavlitzki]

This lot was important to witness the creative approach of Duchamp, but it must be recognized, from the photos, that it was hardly readable. It has not been sold.