The Philadelphia Museum of Art boasts the world’s largest collection of works by French Artist Marcel Duchamp, known best for his avante-garde works that incorporate common materials. The Museum is now exploring his American legacy – in not only visual art, but dance and music. In addition to showcasing over 40 works by Duchamp, the interdisciplinary exhibition juxtaposes more than 60 works by fine artists Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg, music by John Cage, and performances of choreography by Merce Cunningham.
The work that drew these four younger artists to Philadelphia to better understand Duchamp was his, then, best-known masterpiece – The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even - also called, The Large Glass, finished in the 1920s. It is, in fact, two large frames of glass that contain pictures created with materials such as lead foil, wire, and dust.
Jim Cotter speaks with exhibition curator Carlos Basualdo, (the Museum’s curator of contemporary art), about Duchamp’s impact on these artists, and his relationship with Philadelphia.
Dancing around the Bride: Cage, Cunningham, Johns, Rauschenberg, and Duchamp is at the Philadelphia Museum of Art through January 21, 2013.
Information here.
