080018 UE Übung: Duchamp Effects (nst. K.) (2018W)

Marcel Duchamp has long been recognized for revolutionizing the parameters and constraints of artistic practice. His prodigious legacy is succinctly captured in the title of a now canonical collection of essays and interviews: The Duchamp Effect (1994/1996). While that book concentrated in particular on the resonance of the “ready-made,” this course will address itself to a series of “Duchamp effects” that stem from different moments in his career. In addition to the implications of Duchamp’s ready-mades of the 1910s, we will also look closely at the dissemination of La mariée mise à nue par ses célibataires, même (1915-1923), aka the Large Glass, and reflect on his enigmatic final work Étant donnés (1946-1966), which he made in secrecy and was only unveiled after his death in 1968. In this way, we will uncover the artist’s preoccupations with painting, perspective, violence, gender, and the body and unfold their effects on contemporary artistic practice and discourse.

This is a reading- and writing-intensive course. We will immerse ourselves in Duchamp’s work and consider key signatures of his “effect” across Pop, conceptual art, Fluxus, and performance and body art. We will also trace shifts in the art historiography of Duchamp’s work, and examine its resonances for an array of late-20th and early-21st century artists, including Richard Hamilton, Yayoi Kusama, Bruce Nauman, Andy Warhol, and Hannah Wilke amongst others.

The course will be held in English and will provide the opportunity for students to expand and develop skills in written and spoken expression. Active participation in class discussion is expected. Students will write weekly responses to the assigned readings and submit a dossier of writing at the end of semester. Using a foreign language is always an extra challenge and students should not feel discouraged from taking the class for lack of confidence. Students may produce written assignments in German if they choose.