Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Genius, anti-artist, charlatan, guru - impostor? Since 1914 Marcel Duchamp has been called all these. No artist of the 20th century has aroused more passion and controversy, nor exerted a greater influence on art, whose very nature Duchamp challenged and redefined as concept rather than product by questioning its traditionally privileged optical nature. At the same time, he never ceased to be engaged, openly or secretly, in provocative activities and works which transformed traditional artmaking procedures.

Thirty years of research have gone into this accessible text on a complex artist. Written with the enthusiastic support of Duchamp's widow, this is one of the most original and important books ever written on this enigmatic artist, and challenges received ideas, misunderstanding and misinformation.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Of the several recent publications on that notable but elusive protagonist of early modernism, this one has the welcome novelty of being a straightforward, highly intelligible account of his sometimes puzzling undertakings. Free of the gimmickry and pretentiousness that interpretations of his seminal iconoclasm often tend to assume, its nine brief chapters, seamlessly written by collaborating authors, trace Duchamp's career chronologically, from his early involvements with caricature and verbal humor, through his flirtations with symbolism, Cubism, psychic connotations of machinery, and the other irreverent gestures of his middle and later years. Illustrated with 164 color plates and halftone figures that are sometimes small but sufficient to their purpose, Ades's book is clearly intended for the lay reader as well as the initiate, without the taint of condescension. It thus fulfills a worthy and difficult purpose with a certain elegance. The chronology and bibliographical notes are compact but sufficient; list of illustrations follows. All levels. F. A. Trapp; Amherst College