PUBLICATIONS
October 2002 Issue
The Geographical Review
October 2002, Vol. 92 (4), pp. 477-502
MARCEL DUCHAMP’S ART AND THE GEOGRAPHY OF MODERN PARIS
JAMES HOUSEFIELD
Keywords: Marcel Duchamp, landscape, modern art, monuments, Paris, readymade sculpture, urban geography.
[View the abstract in Adobe pdf format]
ABSTRACT:
Modern artist Marcel Duchamp’s concept of the readymade remains influential though controversial.
I propose a new interpretation of the readymades as a coherent series of works that re-create the landscape of Paris
in the artist’s New York City studio. Using techniques that parallel the conceptual and visual transformations of space
performed by cartography and by landscape painting, Duchamp created a personal, monumental, and three-dimensional "map"
by replacing Parisian monuments with small-scale objects. The readymades thus expand on the quest of modern artists for
innovative ways to represent landscape and, at the same time, offer geographers new ways of seeing landscape.
Keywords: Marcel Duchamp, landscape, modern art, monuments, Paris, readymade sculpture, urban geography.
[View the abstract in Adobe pdf format]
ABSTRACT:
Modern artist Marcel Duchamp’s concept of the readymade remains influential though controversial. I propose a new interpretation of the readymades as a coherent series of works that re-create the landscape of Paris in the artist’s New York City studio. Using techniques that parallel the conceptual and visual transformations of space performed by cartography and by landscape painting, Duchamp created a personal, monumental, and three-dimensional "map" by replacing Parisian monuments with small-scale objects. The readymades thus expand on the quest of modern artists for innovative ways to represent landscape and, at the same time, offer geographers new ways of seeing landscape.