Marcel Duchamp sent a telegram in 1947 congratulating Kiesler for the New York show

A Telegram from Marcel Duchamp

David Prowler

History

Readymade Press

The Cubies' ABC was published in the aftermath of the celebrated Armory Show of 1913, the largest and most sensational exhibition of modern art held in the United States.  Designed to appear as little more than a children's ABC book-where three pyramidal-shape characters take readers on a tour of the modern works included in the exhibition-the actual purpose of The Cubies' ABC was to introduce the newest manifestations of contemporary art to the public in a satirical and humorous fashion.  Thus the letter "A" is for "Art, Archipenko and Anatomics," "B" is for "Braque and "Beauty as Brancusi views it," "C" is for "Color Cubistic ad libitum," and "D" is for "Duchamp, the Deep-Dyed Deceiver," whose Nude Descending a Staircase is rendered in the illustration as an accordion in need of repair.  The rhyming text was written by Mary Mills Lyall, and the drawings are by her husband, Earl Harvey Lyall (an architect who had studied at Amherst College, Columbia University and, for a brief period, in Paris).  When The Cubies' ABC appeared in 1913, The Dial declared it "the oddest little color book of the season," telling readers that "the book must be seen and read to be appreciated."  It is here reprinted in a near-exact facsimile of the original publication, accompanied by an introduction (inserted hors text) by Francis M. Naumann.

The Cubies' ABC

Arts & Photography

Mary Mills Lyall

History & Criticism

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.

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

Francis M. Naumann

<p>Marcel Duchamp's Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2-one of the best known and immediately recognizable paintings in the history of 20th century art-"is famous," as the critic Robert Hughes astutely observed, "for being famous." Indeed, when it went on display in the celebrated Armory Show of 1913, the painting was so severely attacked and ridiculed by the American press that the criticism itself overwhelmed any aesthetic merit that the painting might have had to offer. The painter-a twenty-six-year-old French artist then quietly living and working in Paris-would, for nearly the remaining years of his life, be inevitably linked to the notoriety of this painting, so much so that his own identify as its maker was subsumed by its fame, a picture that went on to experience a history that was, in part, independent of its maker. That detailed history is told for the first time in this book by Isabelle Fleuriet, who approached her subject more in the spirit of a biographer-not the biography of a person, as is customarily the case, but that of a single painting-where her chosen subject functions much as would a celebrity, who travels around the world and who, whatever the destination, elicits great interest and attention. Fleuriet traces the story of this painting throughout Duchamp's lifetime, demonstrating that even though he was overshadowed by its fame, he used the picture in varying ways to promote his own artistic identity.</p>

The Grand Old Lady of Modern Art: Marcel Duchamp's Nude Descending a Staircase

Isabelle Fleuriet

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Books by Readymade Press

See the best price to sell, buy or rent books by the Readymade Press publisher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

A Telegram from Marcel Duchamp

The Cubies' ABC

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

The Grand Old Lady of Modern Art: Marcel Duchamp's Nude Descending a Staircase