MARCEL DUCHAMP (1887-1968)
Dada 1916-1923, Sidney Janis, April 15 to May 9, 1953, 1953
Lithograph in colors on thin wove paper, the full sheet, framed.
Sheet: 38 1/4 x 24 5/8 in (97.2 x 62.5 cm)

Footnotes:
Provenance
Private collection, New York.
Acquired from the above by the present owner circa 2000.

Literature
F. Nauman, Marcel Duchamp, The Art of Making Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, New York, 1999, no. 7.2 (another version illustrated p. 178).
A. Schwarz, The Complete Works of Marcel Duchamp, vol. I, New York, 2000, no. 543 (another version illustrated p. 801).
F. Naumann, The Duchamp Family of Artists, Naples, 2014, no. MD-19 (another version illustrated p. 97).


'The Dada catalogue took its place among Duchamp's unique publishing events. Designed as a poster on a 38-by-25-inch sheet of thin, foldable parchment paper, it listed all 212 items and included four short essays by Arp, Tzara, Huelsenbeck and Levesque. These essays were set in blocks of contrasting type running diagonally down the sheet - a text descending a staircase. Duchamp then overprinted the whole page in a bright red-orange, announcing the exhibition with letters that recall original Dada typography. When the painstakingly produced catalogue was finally received, Duchamp has been reported, took a sheet in his hands, crushed it into a loose ball, and suggested that a trash can full of these paper balls be offered to visitors entering the vernissage. Duchamp, characteristically, did not attend the opening' (Caroll Janis quoted in 'Art in America,' June - July, 2006).