Gagosian Runs Back Duchamp’s Greatest “Readymades”
Christening its new Upper East Side gallery.
Summary
- Gagosian inaugurates its new gallery at 980 Madison Avenue with a showcase of replicated “readymades” by pioneering French conceptual artist Marcel Duchamp
- The exhibition runs parallel to a historic Duchamp retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, the first of its kind in over 50 years
It’s Duchamp spring in New York. The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) recently mounted the first U.S. retrospective dedicated to the artist in half a century, and joining in on the momentum, Gagosian is christening its new Upper East Side space with a trove of the conceptual French artist’s most beloved readymades.
On from April 25 through June 27, the exhibition, in the spirit of “Bicycle Wheel,” marks a full-circle moment for both the artworks. Through the years, many of Duchamp’s original bunch of masterpieces had been lost or destroyed, so for the 50th anniversary of his first readymade, the artist and his dealer, Arturo Schwarz, created a set of 14 replicas, which made their American debut in 1965 at the shuttered Cordier & Ekstrom Gallery, which was housed in the same Upper East Side building.
Included in the show are pieces like “Fountain” (1964, after 1917 lost original), “L.H.O.O.Q. (1964, after 1919 original), “Porte-bouteilles (Bottle Dryer)” (1964, after 1914 lost original) and “Boîte-en-valis”e (1935–49; contents 1935–41). Of the works, “Roue de bicyclette (Bicycle Wheel)” (1964, after 1913 lost original), is only surviving example that does not belong to a major international institution.
The new Gagosian space is just steps away from the gallery’s former Upper East Side headquarters, which they vacated last year after it was bought out by Bloomberg Philanthropies. By securing just the ground-floor gallery, Gagosian was able to continuing its 35-year foothold on 980 Madison Avenue.
By retreating the artist’s hand and embracing found objects, Duchamp challenged the notion of value and tilted art toward the conceptual, a shift that paved the way for movements like Dada, minimalism, pop and fluxus. “It all started with Duchamp, I couldn’t imagine a better artist or a more critical body of work to be the first exhibited in our new gallery at 980 Madison, a building he showed in just over sixty years ago,” Larry Gagosian said in a statement.
Marcel Duchamp opens tomorrow, April 25, in New York. For more works by the French pioneer, check out the artist’s sweeping retrospective, running concurrently at MoMA.
Gagosian Upper East Side
980 Madison Ave,
New York, NY 10075
