Marcel Duchamp

Duchamp’s historic 1959 catalogue raisonné-cum-artist's book, superbly designed by the artist, now back in print in a facsimile edition

In 1959, French art critic and collector Robert Lebel published Sur Marcel Duchamp, a catalogue raisonné of Duchamp’s works between 1902 and 1958 and the first monograph published on the work of the legendary artist. Lebel and Duchamp, lifelong friends, worked closely together over a period of six years to bring the book to fruition; Duchamp was so active in developing the conception and layout of the book that Sur Marcel Duchamp is often considered part of the artist’s body of work. The result is an appropriately complex, genre-bending publication that is both scholarly catalogue raisonné and artist’s book, a book that functions simultaneously as an accessible introduction to the artist’s esoteric thinking and a further wrinkle in Duchamp’s perplexing puzzle of an oeuvre. An English translation, executed by George Heard Hamilton, was released later in 1959.

Now, Hauser & Wirth Publishers is issuing a new facsimile of the historic English edition of Sur Marcel Duchamp. The original English edition is faithfully reproduced here, with a supplemental volume, edited by Jean-Jacques Lebel and Antoine Monnier, featuring texts and archival material that detail the close collaboration between Duchamp and Lebel. This essential publication brings the English translation of Sur Marcel Duchamp back into print and tells the fascinating story of its creation.

French American artist Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968) moved through postimpressionism and cubism before embracing a dadaist rejection of painting and what he termed “retinal art,” devoting himself to the pursuit of an art “in the service of the mind.” His readymades radically redefined art and the artist’s role in the 20th century, laying the groundwork for the postwar development of conceptual art.