Marcel Duchamp
Hans Hoffmann
Photograph, 1912
David Fleiss, courtesy Gallerie 1900–2000, Paris
While living in Munich during the summer of 1912, Duchamp received a request from the critic Guillaume Apollinaire for a photographic portrait for the book Les Peintres Cubistes, which included essays on Duchamp and his brother Raymond Duchamp-Villon. In response, Duchamp turned to the Munich-based portrait photographer Hans Hoffmann.
Duchamp’s self-enforced isolation at this turning point in his career is reflected in his distant expression and the austerity of his formal attire. A quarter-century later, Hoffmann’s photograph would be featured in Man Ray’s Portrait of Marcel Duchamp Overlaid with a Photogram of the Glissière.
Listen to co-curator Anne Goodyear discuss this image:
