1913issue6online

21 door by a copy and sent the original to New-York. Duchamp: “buy or take known unknown paintings and sign them with the name of a known or unknown painter— the difference between the ‘style’ [facture] and the unexpected name for the ‘experts’—is the authentic work of Rrose Selavy, and defies forgeries” Il y a, she says there is: the signature (scribbles) the sound of the signature (LLLLLLLLLL) the correction (OOOOOOOO) the orifice of the signature (broken line) the vibration (wavy line) the oroxion (more densely broken line) By the 1940s, Duchamp remained “underground,” claiming to have given up art for chess. In secret for 20 years, subject constructed Étant donnés in a tiny studio on West 14th Street, confiding only in three women (two lovers, one wife) and, in the work’s later stages, artist/ collector William Nelson Copley. Copley: “Nobody had any interest in what he was doing because nobody, including myself, knew he was doing anything. This gave him all the freedom in the world.” Needless to say our subject is now in the wind. Duchamp: “I was really trying to invent, instead of merely expressing myself. I was never interested in looking at myself in an aesthetic mirror. My intention was always to get away from myself, though I knew perfectly well that I was using myself. Call it a little game between ‘I’ and ‘me’.” -Thalia Field and Abigail Lang

1913issue6online

Pages