Marcel Duchamp

Acting

Marcel Duchamp

Born July 28, 1887 · Blainville-Crevon, Seine-Inférieure [now Seine-Maritime], France

Died October 2, 1968 · aged 81

Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp was a French, naturalized American painter, sculptor, chess player and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, conceptual art and Dada, although he was careful about his use of the term Dada and was not directly associated with Dada groups. Duchamp is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse, as one of the three artists who helped to define the…

Known For

GrimaceGrimace · 1967
Grimace
1967
Movie
Produced over several years between 1962 and 1967, Grimaces shows the faces of over a hundred artists, gallery owners and critics grimacing to the camera.
Entr'acteEntr'acte · 1924
Entr'acte
7.01924
MovieComedyFantasy
Stop-motion photography blends with extreme slow-motion in Clair's first and most dada film, composed of a series of zany, interconnected scenes. We witness a rooftop chess match between Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray, a hearse pulled by a camel (and chased by its pallbearers) and a dizzying roller coaster finale. A film of contradictions and agreements.
DadascopeDadascope · 1962
Dadascope
7.71962
Movie
Free-associative images are juxtaposed with disorienting poetry in Richter's late work. The film is visual dynamite: Upside-down and reversed footage, play with shadows and light, billiards and dice and balloons-- suggestive and surreal images. Tenets of Dada writing, such as games of chance, punnery, wordplay and loud nonsense noise are foist upon the viewer as Dada poems are read / performed by their orignal authors.
DadaDada · 1969
Dada
8.01969
MovieDocumentary
1967 film directed by Greta Deseson about the Dada art movement. Featuring Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray, Max Ernst, Hans Richter and Gabrièle Buffet-Picabia
Uncertain VerificationUncertain Verification · 1965
Uncertain Verification
6.61965
MovieDocumentary
A short film containing a collection of clips from various Hollywood movies.
Passionate PastimePassionate Pastime · 1958
Passionate Pastime
1958
MovieDocumentary
Hans Richter's documentary on the game of chess. Narrated by Vincent Price. Outlines the history of chess from ancient times to the present and traces its origins in India, China, and Persia. Prints, painting, illuminated manuscripts, live photography and rare chess pieces are shown as well as chess figures designed after Picasso and Braque.
Anemic CinemaAnemic Cinema · 1926
Anemic Cinema
6.21926
MovieDrama
A spiral design spins. It's replaced by a spinning disk. These two continue in perfect alternation until the end: a spiral design, a disk. Each disk is labelled and can be read as it rotates. The messages, in French, feature puns and whimsical rhymes and alliteration. The final message comments on the spiral motif itself.
Hi-FiHi-Fi · 1999
Hi-Fi
5.01999
Movie
A deep dive into the history of São Paulo's avant-garde poetry movement, starting from fragments of the works of poet Augusto de Campos. A collage of rare scenes shows a long trail of comradery between avant-garde poetry and experimental cinema.

Filmography

Sort
A Conversation with Marcel DuchampA Conversation with Marcel Duchamp · 1956
A Conversation with Marcel Duchamp
1956
Movie
Filmed amidst the Arensberg collection at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where 35 works by Marcel Duchamp are gathered, this 1956 NBC interview features the artist talking with James Johnson Sweeney, former director of the Guggenheim Museum. Duchamp describes his transition away from Impressionism toward a Cubist, and then post-Cubist, approach, providing commentary while standing before Nude Descending a Staircase (“I was not aware of Italian Futurism when I painted it”) and The Large Glass (“The two crackings are symmetrically arranged and there is… almost an intention there… a ready-made intention, in other words, that I respect and love.”). These concepts are paradoxically, although quite logically, articulated alongside his desire for “dryness” and mechanical precision. Viewers also gain insight into Duchamp’s thoughts on painting for an “ideal” public—a notion he clearly distinguishes from ivory-tower elitism.