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Lot Essay
Conceived in New York in November 1915, Marcel Duchamp’s In Advance of the Broken Arm is among the earliest of the artist’s iconic and profoundly influential Readymades, and the first of its kind to be made while the artist was living in America during the First World War. This playful and iconic sculpture came into being one day when Duchamp passed a hardware store near to his studio. With a winter storm approaching, a pile of shovels was stacked up outside, catching the artist’s eye.
I’m not at all sure that the concept of the Readymade isn’t the most important single idea to come out of my work.
Marcel Duchamp
Intrigued by this utilitarian object, Duchamp bought one, and, returning to his studio, he titled, signed and dated it on the handle, “In Advance of the Broken Arm / (from) Marcel Duchamp 1915.” He then hung it from the ceiling, transforming the object into an intriguing, unexpected sculpture. Duchamp’s friend and fellow artist, Jean Crotti, who was then sharing his studio, described it as “the most beautiful object I have ever seen” (quoted in A. Schwarz, The Complete Works of Marcel Duchamp, New York, 2000, vol. II, p. 636). In doing so, Duchamp reconceived the very notion of artistic creation, granting this mass-produced object, which had no previous aesthetic value, the status of an original work of art.
Duchamp had first conceived of the Readymade in Paris two years prior, in 1913, when the artist was struck by the novel idea to fasten a bicycle wheel to a kitchen stool, in order to “watch it turn” (“Apropos of ‘Readymades’” 1961; quoted in M. Affron, ed., The Essential Duchamp, exh. cat., Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2018, p. 171). As the artist explained, while the eponymous Bicycle Wheel was not intended to become a sculptural work in its own right, it sparked a shift in his thinking: “The Bicycle Wheel is my first Readymade, so much so that at first it wasn’t even called a Readymade. It still had little to do with the idea of the Readymade. Rather, it had more to do with the idea of chance” (quoted in A. Schwarz, op. cit., 2000, vol. II, p. 588).
Not long after, Duchamp expanded on the idea by acquiring a “pre-made” sculpture, purchasing a common bottle rack at the Parisian department store, Bazar de l’Hotel de Ville. A familiar sight within French households, Bottle Rack was chosen for its inherent lack of interest, or what Duchamp called its “pure visual indifference” (quoted in ibid., p. 615). The rack, traditionally used for drying glass bottles, was placed in the artist’s studio as an independent sculptural piece, without any intervention, adjustment or assembly by Duchamp, a subversive act that would open his practice up to profound philosophical questions.
The playful title of In Advance of the Broken Arm refers to the utilitarian purpose of the shovels. As Duchamp noted, the title was an important addition to the Readymade, an injection of humor that prompted the viewer’s own imagination to engage with the work. “One important characteristic was the short sentence which I occasionally inscribed on the ‘Readymade’,” he later explained. “That sentence, instead of describing the object like a title, was meant to carry the mind of the spectator towards other regions more verbal…” (quoted in G. Parkinson, The Duchamp Book, London, 2008, p. 155). With In Advance of the Broken Arm, Duchamp appears to invoke the potential hazards associated with the snow shovel, the choice of words leading the viewer to imagine an icy sidewalk, covered in snow, a slip, an awkward landing, and an unexpected trip to the hospital. “I was hoping it was without sense,” Duchamp later admitted, discussing the inscription on the snow shovel, “but deep down, everything ends up by having some…” (quoted in F.M. Naumann, The Recurrent, Haunting Ghost: Essays on the Art, Life and Legacy of Marcel Duchamp, New York, 2012, p. 117).
The following spring, Duchamp included In Advance of the Broken Arm together with another recent Readymade, the typewriter cover called Traveler’s Folding Item, in the exhibition “Modern Art after Cezanne” at the Bourgeois Galleries in New York. The gallery had only agreed to exhibit the groundbreaking Readymades following the artist’s insistence, in return for allowing them to display his earlier paintings, which had become increasingly popular with collectors in the city following the famed Armory Show of 1913. According to the artist, the two Readymades were displayed by an umbrella stand at the entrance to the gallery, and were all but ignored by visiting audiences and critics, much to his delight. Indeed, it was not until Duchamp’s iconoclastic Fountain was submitted to the first exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists in New York in 1917, that the concept of the Readymade entered the public consciousness—chosen specifically for its shock value, this urinal, signed with the pseudonym R. Mutt, proved to be an extraordinary succès de scandal, bringing the complex and controversial questions posed by Duchamp’s Readymades to the forefront of debates surrounding modern art.
As with so many of the early Readymades, the 1915 version had been lost or destroyed, and remains known only through contemporary photographs of the artist’s New York studio. The present example of In Advance of the Broken Arm was produced in 1964 under the supervision of Duchamp, working in close collaboration with Arturo Schwarz, in an edition of eight plus two reserved for the artist and Schwarz, as well as an additional two for museum collections. The present work is Schwarz’s version, which remained in his collection for almost forty years.
For this project with Schwarz, Duchamp chose a selection of his best known and most successful Readymades to recreate, and was determined that the 1964 editions were as closely aligned to the original objects as possible—numerous letters regarding the project reveal Duchamp’s precise instructions of the style, size and type of the various elements required, emphasizing that it was essential to find the best match possible. Of the eight 1964 versions of In Advance of the Broken Arm, the majority are today found in museum collections around the world, including The Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Centre Pompidou, Paris, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, and the Israel Museum, Jerusalem.
This was not the first time Duchamp had sought to replicate In Advance of the Broken Arm—a second version was requested in 1945 by Katherine S. Dreier for her infamous Société Anonyme exhibition and now resides in the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, while in 1963, Duchamp produced a third version for a private collector, which is now held in the collections of the Moderna Museet, Stockholm.
I’m not at all sure that the concept of the Readymade isn’t the most important single idea to come out of my work.
Marcel Duchamp
Intrigued by this utilitarian object, Duchamp bought one, and, returning to his studio, he titled, signed and dated it on the handle, “In Advance of the Broken Arm / (from) Marcel Duchamp 1915.” He then hung it from the ceiling, transforming the object into an intriguing, unexpected sculpture. Duchamp’s friend and fellow artist, Jean Crotti, who was then sharing his studio, described it as “the most beautiful object I have ever seen” (quoted in A. Schwarz, The Complete Works of Marcel Duchamp, New York, 2000, vol. II, p. 636). In doing so, Duchamp reconceived the very notion of artistic creation, granting this mass-produced object, which had no previous aesthetic value, the status of an original work of art.
Duchamp had first conceived of the Readymade in Paris two years prior, in 1913, when the artist was struck by the novel idea to fasten a bicycle wheel to a kitchen stool, in order to “watch it turn” (“Apropos of ‘Readymades’” 1961; quoted in M. Affron, ed., The Essential Duchamp, exh. cat., Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2018, p. 171). As the artist explained, while the eponymous Bicycle Wheel was not intended to become a sculptural work in its own right, it sparked a shift in his thinking: “The Bicycle Wheel is my first Readymade, so much so that at first it wasn’t even called a Readymade. It still had little to do with the idea of the Readymade. Rather, it had more to do with the idea of chance” (quoted in A. Schwarz, op. cit., 2000, vol. II, p. 588).
Not long after, Duchamp expanded on the idea by acquiring a “pre-made” sculpture, purchasing a common bottle rack at the Parisian department store, Bazar de l’Hotel de Ville. A familiar sight within French households, Bottle Rack was chosen for its inherent lack of interest, or what Duchamp called its “pure visual indifference” (quoted in ibid., p. 615). The rack, traditionally used for drying glass bottles, was placed in the artist’s studio as an independent sculptural piece, without any intervention, adjustment or assembly by Duchamp, a subversive act that would open his practice up to profound philosophical questions.
The playful title of In Advance of the Broken Arm refers to the utilitarian purpose of the shovels. As Duchamp noted, the title was an important addition to the Readymade, an injection of humor that prompted the viewer’s own imagination to engage with the work. “One important characteristic was the short sentence which I occasionally inscribed on the ‘Readymade’,” he later explained. “That sentence, instead of describing the object like a title, was meant to carry the mind of the spectator towards other regions more verbal…” (quoted in G. Parkinson, The Duchamp Book, London, 2008, p. 155). With In Advance of the Broken Arm, Duchamp appears to invoke the potential hazards associated with the snow shovel, the choice of words leading the viewer to imagine an icy sidewalk, covered in snow, a slip, an awkward landing, and an unexpected trip to the hospital. “I was hoping it was without sense,” Duchamp later admitted, discussing the inscription on the snow shovel, “but deep down, everything ends up by having some…” (quoted in F.M. Naumann, The Recurrent, Haunting Ghost: Essays on the Art, Life and Legacy of Marcel Duchamp, New York, 2012, p. 117).
The following spring, Duchamp included In Advance of the Broken Arm together with another recent Readymade, the typewriter cover called Traveler’s Folding Item, in the exhibition “Modern Art after Cezanne” at the Bourgeois Galleries in New York. The gallery had only agreed to exhibit the groundbreaking Readymades following the artist’s insistence, in return for allowing them to display his earlier paintings, which had become increasingly popular with collectors in the city following the famed Armory Show of 1913. According to the artist, the two Readymades were displayed by an umbrella stand at the entrance to the gallery, and were all but ignored by visiting audiences and critics, much to his delight. Indeed, it was not until Duchamp’s iconoclastic Fountain was submitted to the first exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists in New York in 1917, that the concept of the Readymade entered the public consciousness—chosen specifically for its shock value, this urinal, signed with the pseudonym R. Mutt, proved to be an extraordinary succès de scandal, bringing the complex and controversial questions posed by Duchamp’s Readymades to the forefront of debates surrounding modern art.
As with so many of the early Readymades, the 1915 version had been lost or destroyed, and remains known only through contemporary photographs of the artist’s New York studio. The present example of In Advance of the Broken Arm was produced in 1964 under the supervision of Duchamp, working in close collaboration with Arturo Schwarz, in an edition of eight plus two reserved for the artist and Schwarz, as well as an additional two for museum collections. The present work is Schwarz’s version, which remained in his collection for almost forty years.
For this project with Schwarz, Duchamp chose a selection of his best known and most successful Readymades to recreate, and was determined that the 1964 editions were as closely aligned to the original objects as possible—numerous letters regarding the project reveal Duchamp’s precise instructions of the style, size and type of the various elements required, emphasizing that it was essential to find the best match possible. Of the eight 1964 versions of In Advance of the Broken Arm, the majority are today found in museum collections around the world, including The Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Centre Pompidou, Paris, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, and the Israel Museum, Jerusalem.
This was not the first time Duchamp had sought to replicate In Advance of the Broken Arm—a second version was requested in 1945 by Katherine S. Dreier for her infamous Société Anonyme exhibition and now resides in the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, while in 1963, Duchamp produced a third version for a private collector, which is now held in the collections of the Moderna Museet, Stockholm.