"Chacun son Marcel?"

About this book

In his dissertation, Bert Jansen gives an overview of the reception of Duchamp in several countries. In his own analysis of uchamp's works, he applies the method of "educated guesswork" an informed guess based on secondary evidence that supports a hypothesis. This approach respects and values the claim of Duchamp on indifference and allows for multiple meanings of a work to coexist. This produces a more speculative kind of art history which according to the author is consistent with the cultural life of the period around 1900. Special attention is devoted to Duchamp's language play, in which his ambiguous attitude emerges concretely.