Documentation on Marcel Duchamp – Kunsthaus Zürich

Original Poster created by Max Bill on the occasion of the 1960 exhibition Dokumentation über Marcel Duchamp at the Kunstgewerbemuseum Zürich (co-designed by Bill), featuring Duchamp’s handprint in the center – an allusion to his so-called ready-mades (objects or other pre-existing objects that are turned into works of art by the artist finding them and declaring them to be works of art), which Duchamp created from 1913 onwards as part of private experiments.

«Documentation» because hardly any original works were on display – these were almost exclusively in private collections or, as in the case of numerous ready-mades, had been lost. It was also the first Duchamp exhibition in a European museum, and it is significant that it took place in the Kunstgewerbemuseum and not in the Kunsthaus; Duchamp (1887 – 1968) was practically forgotten in Europe at the time. The response to the exhibition was correspondingly modest. The public were simply too suspicious of his ideas à la everything can be art. He was rediscovered by artists of the post-war era and thanks to the ideas of Pop Art (i.e. practically without the help of the market – there was hardly anything to sell). Today, Duchamp is considered one of the most influential artists of the 20th century. So Max Bill had a good nose.

maybe of interest as well:

Concrete Art – 50 Years of Development | Helmhaus Zürich