Lot Essay
What is below is like that which is above, and
what is above is like that which is below, to
accomplish the miracles of one thing.
- Precept of the Emerald Table of Hermes
(c.f. The Complete Works of Marcel Duchamp, The Bachelor's Odyssey, p. 165.
Looking down on the work as I focused the camera, it appeared like some strange landscape from a bird's-eye view. There was dust on the work & bits of tissue & cotton wadding that had been used to clean up the finished parts, adding to the mystery. This I thought was indeed the domaine of Duchamp. Later he titled the photograph: Elévage de Poussière - Bringing Up Dust or Dust Raising.
(Man Ray, c.f. Self Portrait)
The image in Dust Breeding was made in Duchamp's studio on West 67th Street of the Large Glass or The Bride Stripped Bare By Her Batchelors, Even, the central work of Duchamp's oeuvre. According to Arturo Schwarz, "This photo is the realization of a wish expressed by Duchamp in a note incorporated in The Green Box: "For the Sieves in the glass - allow dust to fall on this part, a dust of 3 or 4 months and wipe well around it in such a way that this dust will be a kind of color (transparent pastel)."
Man Ray gives an account of the circumstances in which this photo was made in Duchamp's studio..."While the bride lay on her face, decked out in her bridal finery of dust and debris, I exposed her to my sixteen-candle-camera. Within one patient hour was fixed once for all the Domaine de Duchamp. Élevage de poussières [sic]; didn't we raise the dust, though, old boy!"
Man Ray has further explained to the author that the photo was made during the dinner hour by artificial light. He and Marcel went out for a snack, leaving the camera to take a very long exposure; when they came back the photo was ready." (The Complete Works of Marcel Duchamp, p. 483). See also: The Rigour of Imagination, pp. 233-235.
The edition of this work was created in 1964 in Paris, "on the occasion of the Duchamp Travelling Exhibition arranged by Galleria Schwarz, Milan." From the edition of ten numbered prints there are an undisclosed amount in European museums (ibid). Outside of this edition, the only other known print bearing both artists' signatures is a vintage print in a private collection.
what is above is like that which is below, to
accomplish the miracles of one thing.
- Precept of the Emerald Table of Hermes
(c.f. The Complete Works of Marcel Duchamp, The Bachelor's Odyssey, p. 165.
Looking down on the work as I focused the camera, it appeared like some strange landscape from a bird's-eye view. There was dust on the work & bits of tissue & cotton wadding that had been used to clean up the finished parts, adding to the mystery. This I thought was indeed the domaine of Duchamp. Later he titled the photograph: Elévage de Poussière - Bringing Up Dust or Dust Raising.
(Man Ray, c.f. Self Portrait)
The image in Dust Breeding was made in Duchamp's studio on West 67th Street of the Large Glass or The Bride Stripped Bare By Her Batchelors, Even, the central work of Duchamp's oeuvre. According to Arturo Schwarz, "This photo is the realization of a wish expressed by Duchamp in a note incorporated in The Green Box: "For the Sieves in the glass - allow dust to fall on this part, a dust of 3 or 4 months and wipe well around it in such a way that this dust will be a kind of color (transparent pastel)."
Man Ray gives an account of the circumstances in which this photo was made in Duchamp's studio..."While the bride lay on her face, decked out in her bridal finery of dust and debris, I exposed her to my sixteen-candle-camera. Within one patient hour was fixed once for all the Domaine de Duchamp. Élevage de poussières [sic]; didn't we raise the dust, though, old boy!"
Man Ray has further explained to the author that the photo was made during the dinner hour by artificial light. He and Marcel went out for a snack, leaving the camera to take a very long exposure; when they came back the photo was ready." (The Complete Works of Marcel Duchamp, p. 483). See also: The Rigour of Imagination, pp. 233-235.
The edition of this work was created in 1964 in Paris, "on the occasion of the Duchamp Travelling Exhibition arranged by Galleria Schwarz, Milan." From the edition of ten numbered prints there are an undisclosed amount in European museums (ibid). Outside of this edition, the only other known print bearing both artists' signatures is a vintage print in a private collection.