Duchamp Duchamp

The Large Glass, otherwise known as The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even, as become one of the most well known mixed media, three-dimensional works of art to come from the hands of Marcel Duchamp. He began planning for the project in 1913 with a series of notes and sketches. Then he published those preliminary studies as The Green Box and sold many copies. He began work in 1915 and carefully constructed the work from two glass panels, lead foil, fuse wire, and dust and finally finished in 1923. His work not only involved laborious craftsmanship but fortunate mistakes. The glass was broken in 1926 and Duchamp decided that he preferred to leave the glass that way after carefully repairing most of the damage. As time passed on and it’s popularity grew, Duchamp sanctioned replicas. The first was for an exhibition at Maderna Museet in Stockholm and another in 1966 for the Tate Gallery in London.
The most popular interpretation for The Large Glass is that it’s an exploration of female and male desire and the complication that arise. It’s a “love Machine” or more appropriately, “a machine of suffering” according to Janis Mink. “The lower and upper realms are forever separated by the horizon designated as the ‘bride’s clothes’.” The bachelors below are subjected to only being able to experience “the possibility of churning, agonized masturbation.” [Mink]. Andrew Stafford, author of Making Sense of Marcel Duchamp, claims that the title the characteristic ironic humor that many of us know Duchamp’s art for, arguing that “ the Bride bares herself, physically or psychically to incite her suitors’ libidos. Personally, I have never had a taste for Duchamp’s work. While I appreciate his intuitive sense of creativity, his disdain and prickly manner in which he centers his work around has always annoyed me. I have an interest in how he created the work, because I have always found mix media fascinating. But when it comes to the concept behind the work, I take the time to learn what it is, but then I move on. There are other ideas that I prefer to delve into.

sources:
Mink, Janis: Marcel Duchamp, 1887-1968: Art as Anti-Art as reproduced at artchive.com.

Stafford, Andrew: Making Sense of Marcel Duchamp website.