Oculist Witness (Lullin M2)

Oculist witness and Sieves were made within the context of Hamilton's curatorship of the Tate's The Almost Complete Works of Marcel Duchamp exhibition in 1966. Due to the fragile state of Duchamp's 'Large Glass', Hamilton realised that it could not be shipped to the exhibition. He also realised, however, that the show would be incomplete without some version of this seminal work. Working with Duchamp, it was agreed that Hamilton would re-create Duchamp's masterpiece. In his catalogue raisonné, Lullin also notes that Duchamp delivers a trademark witty ambiguity with his use of 'd'après' before his signature: 'Duchamp, at the age of eighty-two, may be asking if anything exists after an existence departs. With the added signature 'Richard Hamilton', does it say, 'after me Richard Hamilton may be there, and life goes on?' (E. Lullin, Richard Hamilton, Prints and Multiples 1939-2002, Kunstmuseum, Winterthur, and Yale Centre for British Art, New Haven, 2003, p. 254.)