The Recurrent: Essays on the Art, Life and Legacy of Marcel Duchamp

Francis M. Naumann has been writing about the art and ideas of Marcel Duchamp for nearly forty years. The present compilation of thirty-three essays consists of articles he has published in various scholarly catalogues and journals, although they have been extensively revised and expanded for inclusion in this publication. A number of new essays were written specially for this volume (several of which were based on lectures that he has delivered on the artist over the years). The book is designed to address not only the major works produced by Marcel Duchamp-from the Nude Descending a Staircase (1912) and Large Glass (1915-23), to the Etant donnés (1946-66)-but to engage readers with the major themes that occur with some consistency in a lifetime of work: chess, optics, humor, eroticism, anarchy, replication, money and art, etc.