Notes

Marcel Duchamp's position in the history of 20th century art is uncontested. He was the hidden master, the meticu-lous anti-artist whose denial of aesthetics and almost mystical irony coupled to form his definitively uncompleted masterpiece, The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even (1915 - 1923). His works and ideas continue to baffle and inspire; his writings, primarily composed of notes intended to caption the ideas behind this work, are for this reason a cornerstone to modern art. Largely unknown to date, however, are his posthumously published Notes: a medley of intellectual clues, teasing enigmas, iconoclastic puns, as well as sketches for unrealized projects -- altogether, a crucial missing piece to Duchamp's writings. Far from offering simple answers to his visually realized works, Duchamp's notes instead open up new approaches. Like inner snapshots of his shrouded games, these notes offer glimpses into his Bride, further ideas concerning the fourth dimension, and a variety of perspectives on his appropriately witty obsession with the Infra-thin. As many of these notes had originally been discarded by Duchamp, we are also offered an intimate look at Duchamp's manner of working and thinking. The arrangement and translation of these notes is by Paul Matisse, friend and stepson to Duchamp; his sensitivity to Duchamp's thought and intentions makes this edition an especially valuable contribution to our understanding of this seminal artist's legacy. Marcel Duchamp (1887 - 1968) was, with Picasso, the most important artist of the 20th century. Father of conceptual art, he was also a bemused participant in the Dada and Surrealist movements, and -- via theinfamous display of his 1912 Nude Descending a Staircase at the Armory Show in New York -- the instigator of modernism in America.