WEEKLY TRANSMISSION N°44 THURSDAY 3rd NOVEMBER 2016

ART IS ALL A MATTER OF PERSONALITY: MARCEL DUCHAMP EXPLAINED

contents:
Anthology of Black Humor II
Marcel Duchamp Patient Waiting for a Visa near Marseilles, 1942 IV
The Bottel Rack, Œuvre Pure, Tout et Rien V
The Sainte Trinide Portrait 1
The Anthology of Black Humor (in French Anthologie de l'humour noir) is an anthology of 45
writers edited by André Breton. It was first published in 1940 in Paris by Éditions du Sagittaire and
its distribution was immediately banned by the Vichy government. It was available only in 1945
and soon reprinted in 1947 after Breton's return from exile. The anthology not only introduced
some until then almost unknown or forgotten writers — Sade, Lichtenberg, Charles Fourier, de
Quincey, Lacenaire, Petrus Borel, Xavier Forneret, Charles Cros, Isidore Ducasse, Tristan Corbière,
Alphonse Allais, John Millington Synge, Arthur Cravan, Jakob van Hoddis, Marcel Duchamp...,
it also coined the term "black humor". The term became globally used since then.

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and documents as they have been handed down to the actual owners
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The physical descriptions, attributions, origins, and printing dates
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N°44 : THE SANARY BOTTLE RACK

 Weekly Transmission 44 III Thursday 3rd November 2016 .

“M. Duchamp being actually in the United States, the Deluxe copies cover has been designed
M. Dominguez”. Marcel Duchamp wanted to go the the United States, and went to Marseilles
in September 1941 in order to get a ticket and before, a visa. Unfortunately, both the diplomat
Hiram Bingham IV and the journalist Norman Fry — who helped so many refugees to leave
France — had been transfered by an alarmed United States government.
Meanwhile, Duchamp decided to wait in Sanary-sur-Mer, where he stayed near his sister
Yvonne, and took a room in the hôtel Primavera de Sanary. He will wait for a visa for six
months and then will get a transatlantic ticket boarding on the Portuguese neutral transatlantic
vessel Serpa Pinto in Casablanca. Duchamp left Marseilles on May 15, and after a two-nights
transit in Casablanca, June 5-7, he arrived in Staten Island on June 25, 1942.
In October he could design the First Papers of Surrealism show in New York.
 Weekly Transmission 44 IV Thursday 3rd November 2016 .

The Day Marcel Duchamp left for America: 15 May 1942

Victor Brauner, Jacques Hérold & Henriette Gomès walked him to the Port of Marseilles
(Photo André Gomès, courtesy Galerie Alain Paire).

During World War II the Serpa Pinto, sailing under the Portuguese flag (neutral), undertook
many transatlantic journeys taking in which German Nazi sympathisers in Latin America have
got back to Europe. By the same route, but the other way around, thousands of refugees
succeeded in fleeing overseas from Lisbon and Casablanca. Among others, the expressionist
writer Ivan Heilbutt as well as the communist publicists Walter and Charlotte Janka, Georg
Stibi and Alexander Abusch reached their exile in Mexico on board the Serpa Pinto. French
intellectuals like Simone Weil and Marcel Duchamp also left the European continent using
this vessel. Under the command of captain Américo dos Santos, it only scarcely managed to
avoid being sunk on several occasions. In the fall of 1941 Jews were forbidden to emigrate
from areas under German control, and so subsequently very few refugees have managed to
embark for overseas from European harbours.
 Weekly Transmission 44 V Thursday 3rd November 2016 .

The Bottle Rack

“The Bottle Rack (also called Bottle Dryer or Hedgehog) (Egouttoir or Porte-bouteilles or
Hérisson) is an artwork created in 1914 by Marcel Duchamp and labeled as a
"readymade", a term he used to describe his collection of ordinary, manufactured objects
not commonly associated with art.
Marcel Duchamp claimed to have bought the Bottle Rack at the BHV (Bazar de l'Hôtel
de Ville) near the Paris city hall. The Bottle Rack was a typical, metal rack used for the
drying of bottles, but the spiky, aggressive appearance of the piece earned it the name of
Hedgehog. Unlike the earlier Bicycle Wheel (1913) or Pharmacy (1913), the Bottle Rack
was not modified in any way, making it the first, "true" example of a readymade. The Bottle
Rack also had an inscription scribbled on its side, much like the infamous R. Mutt of
Duchamp's Fountain (1917) piece, though the actual words remain a mystery. The original
piece was destroyed as garbage by Duchamp's sister and stepsister after the artist left
France in 1914 for the United States. The legacy of the work lives on, with 1960s replicas
residing in prominent museums, such as the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Norton
Simon Museum, and the Moderna Museet.
Now, the Austrian dealer Thaddaeus Ropac is to sell a unique version of the sculpture,
created in 1959, on behalf of the Rauschenberg Foundation in New York. It will be at the
heart of an exhibition opening on 20 October (until 14 January 2017) at Ropac’s Paris
gallery to mark the centenary of the readymade. The foundation declined to give a price,
but those in the trade expect the bottle dryer to sell for around $10m.
Verso of MoMAs Bottle Rack photo by Man Ray.
 Weekly Transmission 44 VII Thursday 3rd November 2016 .

"Œuvre pure : tout et rien

La volonté de vouloir presser entre les mains un nuage ou
Rompre du regard la membrane de chaque soleil naissant.
Ou encore déchirer la pourpre immatérielle de tous les crépuscules
Maîtriser la lumière de tous les miroirs pour les rendre transparents,
Et contempler ensuite le monde au travers
Valoriser l’empreinte d’un pied sur le sable
La tache brumeuse d’une main sur la vitre
La toile d’araignée tendue entre les paupières
La goutte de pluie transbordée le long d’un fil télégraphique
La couche ténue de poussière sur les objets assoupis par l’abandon ..."

"Pure work: everything and nothing

The will to squeeze in one’s hands a cloud
To break with one’s gaze the membrane of each rising sun.
Or to tear the light purple of all sunsets
Controlling the light of all the mirrors to make them transparent,
And then contemplate the world through
Valuing a footprint on the sand
A Misty spot left by one hand on a window
The spider web between the eyelids
The raindrop transhipped along a telegraph wire
The thin layer of dust on the sleepy objects abandoned ... "

MARCEL DUCHAMP (1887-1968). Transcribed Conversation with Julian Sanz-Martinez,

Hameau de Sainte Trinide, Sanary-sur-Mer, Spring 1942. Manuscript, 4 pp.
Private collection
This conversation presented as a poem was found together with Duchamp’s telegrams and
photos in the project of a book Sanz-Martinez prepared after Duchamp left for America. Julian
Sanz-Martinez was born in 1897 in Madrid. Curious and simultaneously archeologist,
historian, scholar, researcher, collector, mason and republican, he cultivated ties with the
leading figures of the French intelligentsia, went into exile in France in 1936 until his death
in 1988. He lived for a long time in Savary-sur-Mer where Marcel Duchamp spent six months,
waiting his visa. Their meetings were at the origin of poems and photographs.
 Weekly Transmission 44 1 Thursday 3rd November 2016 .

JULIAN SANZ MARTINEZ (1897-1988). Marcel Duchamp and the Sanary Bottle Rack,
Hameau de Sainte Trinide, Sanary-sur-mer, 1942. Vintage silver print, 140x87 mm. This 1942
bottle rack has not been described yet.
Private collection, to be auctioned in four months
 Weekly Transmission 44 2 Thursday 3rd November 2016 .

ANDRÉ BRETON (1896-1966). Anthologie de l’Humour noir, Sagittaire 1940. In-8, with the
rare printed annonce: “M. Duchamp being actually in the United States, the Deluxe copies
cover has been designed by Oscar Dominguez”. 100 euros
 “I couldn't go into the haphazard drawing or the paintings, the
splashing of paint. I wanted to go back to a completely dry drawing, a
dry conception of art. And the mechanical drawing for me was the
best form...” (Pierre Cabanne, Entretiens avec Marcel Duchamp, p. 130)
 Binoche & Giquello. Photography auction Thursday 10 November 2016
Paris Drouot - salle 9 - 6pm: Photographies anciennes et modernes

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Binoche & Giquello. Photography auction Thursday 10 November 2016
Paris Drouot - salle 9 - 8pm: Gustave Le Gray. Dix-huit Vues de Paris

inquiries : o.caule@betg.fr
online catalogue : www.binocheetgiquello.com
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