1962 Paletten, no. 4 C. G. Bjurström writes "Artworks and Things" where he discusses Linde's interpretation of Duchamp's "Bottle Dryer [Bottlerack]." 1963 Konstrevy no. 1 Here you find Ulf Linde's essay Kommentar till Marcel Duchamps Bruden avklädd av sina ungkarlar, t.o.m. (Comment to Marcel Duchamp's The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even). It is illustrated with drawings from the "Green Box" and photographs of Marcel Duchamp taken by Lütfi Özkök in Stockholm, 1961. (49) 1963 Konstrevy, no. 2 This issue contains a full size advertisement of Marcel Duchamp's exhibition at the Galerie Eva af Burén April – May, 1963. Illustrated by a photograph of Duchamp's "Female Fig Leaf," S 536. (50)

ssue, Ulf Linde ends his translation of "The Green Box".

1963

Är allting konst?

A collection of contributions to the debate Is everything art? published by Tribunserien, Bonniers, 1963. (See above.) Ulf Linde's reply to Torsten Bergmark's criticism is perhaps the sharpest and clearest I have ever read. (51)

1963

Galerie Eva af Burén - Marcel Duchamp

Ulf Linde released his book Marcel Duchamp, (52) in connection with Duchamp's exhibition at Galerie Eva af Burén, Stockholm, 1963, of replicas of his ready-mades. Linde begins his text with an odd request, "I must ask the reader not to read the text - it is secondary. It is the captions, which are primary. I must ask you to read them first."

This is the first book published in Sweden concerning the complexity of Duchamp's works.  One receives a glimpse of Duchamp's aesthetics and anti-aesthetics views that he has used since distancing himself from retinal art.

In Linde's 1987 book, he explains how his first book, Marcel Duchamp, 1963, finally came to be published. Initially, Linde's text was written by request from Marcel Duchamp, for Metro, a very exclusive magazine in Milan, which had offered Duchamp 32 pages in issue no. 9. Duchamp, who had read Linde's text in Spejare, asked the author if he could take care of the text for Metro by using the content from Spejare, adding only a few corrections and perhaps a new text. Duchamp wanted Linde to emphasize his ready-mades and use a few of his own writings of which Linde could make his own choice. Ulf Linde's text was never published in Metro, but he began to plan its publication.

The issue of finances was solved when Duchamp offered his "Self-Portrait in Profile" in a special edition of 25 copies (53).  It sold well and covered a part of the printing costs, S 557 b.  An unnumbered edition was also published in regard to the Galeria Eva af Burén exhibition.

The show actually began when Linde visited Galerie Burén. During the call, he began discussing ways to display Duchamp's "Boite en Valise."  Eva af Burén had purchased the work and wanted to exhibit it at her gallery.  She wanted to consult the possibilities with Linde. "After a while we had planned an exhibition, which should contain replicas of almost every readymade by Duchamp. Only two were available in Stockholm - Bicycle Wheel and Fresh Widow, both signed by him when he was here [1961] - but one could ask Duchamp to manufacture the rest. - We wrote to Duchamp and received an immediate reply." (See above.)

Arne Törnqvist reviews Ulf Linde's book Marcel Duchamp (52) on pages 123 and 125, in "Reflexer", where Törnqvist writes about the Moderna Museet's purchase of Linde's Duchamp replicas. (sic)

Click to enlarge

52. Ulf Linde, Marcel Duchamp, 1963.

1964

Konstrevy, no. 4

Marcel Duchamp's "Virgin, No. 1," 1912, S 250, drawing, illustrates Karin Bergqvist-Lindegren's review about Dokumenta III. (Later she became director of the Moderna Museet.)

1964

Paletten, no. 4

This contains an advertisement for the special edition of 25 copies of Ulf Linde's book Marcel Duchamp, published by Galerie Eva af Burén. Duchamp's "Self-portrait in Profile", S 557 b, is featured in the advertisement. (53)

1965

Moderna Museet besöker Landskrona Konsthall

K.G. Hultén (Pontus Hultén) wrote the introduction for the catalogue.

Exhibited works:

"Bicycle Wheel," 1913, S 278 c.

"Bottle Dryer (Bottlerack)," 1914, S 306 e.

"Peigne, (Comb)," 1916, S 339 a.

"A bruit secret, (With Hidden Noise)," 1916, S 340 a.

"Fontaine, (Fountain)," 1917, S 345 c. 

"...pliant de voyage...(Traveler's Folding Item [Underwood]," 1917, S 342 a.

"Fresh Widow," 1920, S 376 a.

"Why Not sneeze, (Why Not Sneeze Rose Sélavy?)," 1921, S 391 a.

"Rotorelief," 1930, "(Rotoreliefs [Optical Disks])," 1935, S 441.

"Boite en valise," 1942, (From or by Marcel Duchamp or Rrose Sélavy [The Box in Valise], 1935-41), S 484.

"Objet Dard" 1951, ("Objet-Dard [Dart Object," 1951]), S 542.

"Feuille de Vigne," 1951, ("Feuille de Vigne Femelle [Female Fig Leaf, 1950]"), S 536.

1965

Fyra artiklar av Ulf Linde

After these four articles had been published in the daily newspaper, Dagens Nyheter, spring, 1965, Linde retired as their art critic. The articles were later published in a book with the same title by BLM biblioteket, Bonniers, Stockholm, 1965. (54)

He had had enough. All four articles were the result of the great Swedish art debate, which started in 1962. In the fourth article he writes about Duchamp's attitude towards his readymade "Fountain". Linde quotes the artist, "Whether Mr Mutt did the fountain with his own hands or not has no relevance. He CHOSE it. He took well-known utility goods and presented it so that its common idea disappeared. A new title and a new point of view made it possible; he created a new concept for the item in question."  (See The Blind Man, P.B.T. no. 2 May, 1917. This editorial has often been attributed to Duchamp himself, but according to Schwarz, 1997, Section XXII, no. 10, page 898 "Duchamp explains that this editorial was 'rather written by the editorial board.'")

(Refer to Hector Obalk's article "The Unfindable Readymades" ToutFaitJournal Vol. 1 Issue 2, 1999, and Beatrice wood's autobiography I Shock Myself, 1992 [1985], pp. 26-36.)

1966

Gorilla [1], [kalender]

This is one of the most original publications about art and culture in Sweden in an era that was characterised by Marshall McLuhan. Only two issues were released. In this first issue Leon Rappaport, a Polish mathematician, physicist, diplomat and author of Determinantan and Eva, writes Kring konsten (About Art). He polemizes against Marcel Duchamp, and writes how Duchamp has mixed two completely different things in his work. (55)

1966

Meddelande från Moderna Museet no. 19

This issue of the Moderna Museet's bulletin was published as a catalogue for the DADA exhibition in 1966 (56).  On page 17, K.G.H. (Pontus Hultén) presents Marcel Duchamp. Hultén writes about Duchamp's ready-mades and his waning faith in traditional art. 14 works by Duchamp are in the exhibition, 10 of which are Linde's ready-made replicas. Each item is described in detail.

Hultén's article is accompanied by a facsimile of a letter written to Duchamp with questions concerning the origins of his ready-mades.  The artist wrote his replies within the margins of the letter and specifically comments on the Bicycle Wheel. "Yes, but no name, not even ready made 1913. Never exhibited and lost after moving," Duchamp wrote.

(See the letters to Suzanne Duchamp and Schwarz, S 278 a, lost replica.)

1966

Vår konst, no. 6, 1966

Vår Konst, no. 6, published an article about "grammonskivor, pocketböcker, multikonst" (gramophone records, pocket books, multiple art) by Kristian Romare. (57)

He writes: "A modern folk art of mass-produced artistic objects to experience, distributed in the same way as pocket books and gramophone records into our daily life, are necessary, if not, visual art shall remain an isolated phenomenon inside the walls of the museums..."

He tells us how Daniel Spoerri started Edition-MAT in 1959, and that he and other artists asked Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray, Vasarely, Tinguely to create hundreds of copies of three dimensional artworks, to be sold for a couple of hundred crowns. Romare continues: "In the springtime, in connection with Riksutställningar's - Konstfrämjandet's campaign of the multi art project, 1966, a gallery in Stockholm arranged an exhibition with multiple editions by Edition-MAT, [100 copies of Duchamp's 1953 edition], with a great sale success. [Romare is wrong about the year, because that exhibition was arranged in 1960.] [The editions] by Spoerri's friend, Per Olof Ultvedt, [were shown] with the first Edition MAT collection at Bokkonsum in Stockholm and in the 'polemical pamphlet' called Kasark."

Romare continues: " 'Modern art looks for its Gutenberg,' Duchamp has said. He is also the one who first and most radically broke with the idea about the unique, valuable Work of Art and looked for ways to communicate the idea of art, the conceptual expression, by mass fabricated things.  Either already produced objects, like his famous 'Bottle Rack' and 'Bicycle Wheel', or his own images, the production is as natural as when a manuscript is printed or gramophone record is pressed. With his Rotoreliefs, 1935 - optical disks which are records for the eye - he has demonstrated how mass fabricated artworks could be done."

This article is illustrated with the following works:

"Grammofonskiva för ögat: Marcel Duchamp's rotorelief från" 1935, utgiven av Moderna Museet i Stockholm, att ses i rörelse. (Optical disk for the eye: Marcel Duchamp's Rotoreliefs, to be seen in motion, published by Moderna Museet, Stockholm. [For this work, see S 441 page 731 under Reproductions 5. Corolles.])   

1967

Paletten, no. 2

Per Drougge: "Strip-Tease på barrikaden, ett spel med figurer och innebörder". (Strip-Tease on the barricades, a play with figures and meanings.)

Drougge writes: "The strangest myth in the modern history of art is probably that [which] has appeared around Marcel Duchamp..."

1967

Konstrevy, no. 5-6

This issue is dedicated to the Surrealism and contains a translation from Marcel Duchamp's A l'infinitif, Neuilly, 1913. (58)

Click to enlarge

58. Konstrevy no.5/6, 1967, Marcel Duchamp, "A l'infinitif", 1913.

1970

Paletten, no. 4

P. G. Hultén's article, "Maskinen," (The Machine), is about the exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, 1968.

Appendix:

Printed sources:

Nya Strömningar, Fransk Surrealism, Antologi, Spektrums Förlag, 1933.

BLM, Bonniers Litterära Magasin, 1932-.

konkretion , art magazine, 1935-1936, sixth issue, 5-6, was a double-issue.

Prisma, 1948-1950.

Konstrevy, 1925-1970.

Konstperspektiv, 1945-1964.

KASARK, 1954-.

Odyssé, 1953-1955.

Vårblandaren, spring, 1954, Gåsblandaren, autumn, 1954, published since 1863. My reference is the autumn issue, 1954.

Salamander, 1955-1956.

Sydsvenska Dagbladet(SDS, newspaper), Tuesday, June 14, 1955.

Konstspegeln , 1954-1956.

Bokkonsum, exhibition, and invitation card, 1960.

Paletten, 1940-.

Spejare by Ulf Linde, Stockholm, 1960.

Rörelse i konsten, catalogue, Moderna Museet, Stockholm 17 May - 3 September, 1961.

Är allting konst?,anthology with articles published on the great debate about art, Stockholm, 1963.

MarcelDuchamp, by Ulf Linde, Stockholm, 1963.

Moderna Museet visit Landskrona Konsthall , catalogue, 1965.

Fyra artiklar by Ulf Linde, Stockholm, 1965.

Gorilla (1), Kalender, 1966-1967.

Vår konst, 1966.

The Machine, catalogue, 1968.

"The Unfindable Readymades" (Hector Obalk)

Affect Marcel, The Selected Correspondence of Marcel Duchamp, Francis M. Naumann & Hector Obalk, 2000.

Index:

Torsten Andersson, artist.

Torsten Bergmark, artist and art critic.

Karin Bergqvist-Lindegren, author and former director of the Moderna Museet, Stockholm.

Vilh. Bjerke-Petersen, Danish artist and publisher, 1909-1957.

C. G. Bjurström, author.

Gabrielle Buffet-Picabia.

Eva af Burén, Galerie Eva af Buren, Stockholm.

Carlo Derkert, curator at the Moderna Museet, Stockholm.

Per Drougge, art critic.

Folke Edwards, Swedish art critic, author and former chief editor of Paletten.

Gunnar Ekelöf, author and poet. 1907-1968. Lived in Paris, 1929-1930.

Rabbe Enckell.

V. Enhult, pseudonym and anagram for Pontus Hultén.

Öyvind Fahlström, artist, poet and author.

Ingemar Gustafsson (Leckius), poet.

Gunnar Hellman, art critic.

Elisabet Hermodsson, artist and poet.

C. O. Hultén, artist, founder of gallery Colibri, Malmo, Sweden and publisher of Salamander.

K. G. Hultén, [K. G. H.], (Pontus Hultén).

Harriet Janis, New York.

Sidney Janis, New York.

Angelica Juhlner, Swedish artist, Fox Amfoux, France.

Billy Klüver, engineer, New York.

Gösta Kriland, artist.

Ilmar Laaban, poet and author.

Ulf Linde, art critic and author.

Erik Lindegren, author and poet, 1910-1968.

Bo Lindwall, art critic and author.

V. Lundström, author.

Francis M. Naumann

Ebbe Neergaard, author.

Bo Nilsson, art critic and director at Liljevalchs Konsthall, Stockholm.

Lars Nittve, art critic and curator at the Moderna Museet, director at Rooseum, Malmö, Louisiana, Humlebaeck, director at the Tate Modern, London.

Hans Nordenström, artist and professor.

Hector Obalk, France.

Leon Rappaport, Polish (Swedish) mathematician, physicist, diplomat  and author.

Carl-Fredrik Reuterswärd, artist, poet and author.

Oscar Reuterswärd, professor and artist.

Torsten Ridell, artist and curator.

Kristian Romare, art critic and author.

Haavard Rostrup, Danish author.

Ingrid Rydbeck-Zuhr, chief editor Konstrevy.

Henrik Samuelsson.

Daniel Spoerri, artist.

John Stenborg.

Arne Törnqvist, author and art critic.

Per Olof Ultvedt, artist.

Lars Vilks, artist and professor of art history.

Dag Wedholm, author.

Magnus Wibom.

Agnes Widlund, Galerie Samlaren, Stockholm.

Pär Wistrand, author.

Beatrice Wood, author an artist.

Eugen Wretholm, art critic and author. 

Lütfi Özkök, photographer Sweden.

in following categories in Schwarz, 1997:

Categories:

Ready-made

Assisted Ready-made

Rectified Ready-made

Semi-Ready-made

Provoked Ready-made

Imitated Ready-made

Bred Ready-made, changed to Photograph S 1997

Reciprocal Ready-made changed to Modified Printed Ready-made S 1997.

Marcel Duchamp describes in his essay Apropos of Ready-mades, 1961: "In 1913 I got the happy idea to fasten a bicycle wheel to a kitchen chair and watch it turn… In  1915 I bought at a hardware store a snow shovel on which I wrote "In advance of the Broken Arm". It was around that time the word 'readymade' came to mind to designate this form of manifestation."

According to Schwarz, 1997, Marcel Duchamp

had chosen following ready-mades:

Ready-mades:

"Bottle Dryer," Paris, 1914, original lost. S 306.

"Pulled at 4 Pins," New York, 1915, present location unknown (lost). S 331.

"In Advance of the Broken Arm," New York, 1914, original lost. S 332.

"Emergency in Favour of Twice," New York, 1915, original lost or unrealized not recorded. S 333.

"Comb," New York, 1916, S 339. Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA).

"Battle Scene," New York, 1916, original destroyed. S 341.

"Traveller's Folding Item," New York, 1916, original lost. S 342.

"French Military Paper," New York, 1918, present location unknown. S 352.

"Paris Air," Paris, 1919. S 375. PMA.

The Non-Dada, New York, 1922. S 402. Gabrielle Keiller, London.

"L.H.O.O.Q. Shaved," edition of approx. 100, New York, 1965. S 615.

"Hommage à Cassia (Homage to Cassia)," edition of 30, New York, 1966. S 632.

"Pollyperruque," New York, 1967. S 644. Graphische Sammlung, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart.

Assisted Ready-made:

"Bicycle Wheel," Paris, 1913, original lost. S 278.

"With Hidden Noise," New York, 1916. S 340. PMA.

"Fountain," New York, 1917, original lost. S 345.

"Trébuchet (Trap)," New York, 1917, original lost, S 350.

"Hat Rack," New York, 1917, original lost. S 351.

"Unhappy Ready-made Buenos Aires," 1919 original lost. S 367.

"Belle Haleine: Eau de Voilette (Beautiful Breath: Veil Water)" [Perfume Bottle], New York, 1921. S 388. Private collection Paris.

Rectified Ready-mades:

"Pharmacy," Rouen 1914. S 283. Collection Arakawa, New York.

"Apolinère Enameled," New York, 1917. S 344. PMA.

"Handmade Stereopticon Slide," Buenos Aries, 1918-19. S 365. Museum of Modern Art, New York (MoMA).

"L.H.O.O.Q.," Paris, 1919. S 369. Private collection Paris.

"Wanted $ 2,000 Reward," New York, 1923. S 403. Collection Louise Hellstrom.

"Pocket Chess Set," edition of 150 but only 25 assembled, New York, 1943, S 504.

Semi-Ready-made:

"Why Not Sneeze Rose Sélavy?," New York, 1921. S 391. PMA.

Provoked Readymades:

"The Corkscrew's Shadow," New York, 1918. S 353 and S 354. Shadow cast by a corkscrew ("Tu m´"), now at the Yale University Art Gallery.

"Urn with the Ashes of Duchamp['s Cigar]," Paris, 1965, S 618. Michel Sanouillet, Nice.

Imitated Rectified Ready-mades:

"Belle Haleine: Eau de Voilette (Beautiful Breath: Veil Water)" [Label], New York, 1921. S 386. Collection Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd, Stockholm.

"Monte Carlo Bond," a planed edition of 30 only less than 8 assembled Paris, 1924. S 406.

"Eau & Gaz á tous les étages (Water & Gas on Every Floor)," edition of 10 plus 17, Paris, 1958. S 560.

"Couple of Laundress's Aprons," edition of 20, Paris, 1959, edition of 20. S 574.

Reciprocal Ready-made:

"A Rembrandt used as an ironing board," now Schwarz calls it "Modified Printed Ready-made."

Among these 34 ready-mades, 12 originals are missing, according to Schwarz.  Three of these are Duchamp's most well known works. These are:

Bicycle Wheel, 1913, Paris. (59)

A re-made of the Bottlerack, Leif Eriksson, 1977. (See caption 60)

Fountain, 1917, New York. (61)

Ironically, though these three ready-mades are the most important works of art in the history of art they have never been exhibited in their original version.

According to Schwarz, 1969, and Lebel, 1959, "In Advance of the Broken Arm" and "Traveler's Folding Item" might have been exhibited in New York in 1916 at the Stephen Bourgeois Gallery.  The works were subsequently registered in the catalogue under "Sculptures: Two Ready-mades", but then disappeared. In Schwarz's revised edition in 1997 he completey omits this information.

This means that when these ready-mades are "exhibited" or reproduced in books, they are either photographs of the original or replicas. For example, for the exhibition "Fantastic Art Dada Surrealism" at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, 1936-1937, Duchamp signed and sent Man Ray's photograph of a bottle dryer, which has a shadow at the bottom. This shadow was retouched on the version included in "Box in a Valise".

Almost every readymade on view in museums today are replicas, which Schwarz released in 1964.

Some of Duchamp's ready-mades are rather unknown such as "Pulled at 4 Pins", S 331. According to Schwarz, this was Duchamp's first ready-made in New York in 1915. It was an unpainted tin chimney cowl and was never recorded. In 1964, a replica was made, a copperplate where Duchamp has engraved a chimney, S 609. Today it is available in different editions on several papers released by the Schwarz gallery.

Another unknown ready-made is "The Battle Scene", New York, 1916. Now destroyed, it was a mural at Cafe des Artistes, 1 West 67 Street in New York, on which Duchamp signed his name, S 341.

"French Military Paper", 1918, New York, is a typed note-like a letter, signed (from) Marcel Duchamp, 1918, S 352.

"The Cork Screw's Shadow" 1918, New York, S 353, is the shadow in Duchamp's painting Tu m´, 1918, New York. From the surface of the painting a bottlebrush stands out at a right angel from a tromp l'œil rip mended with three actual safety pins. Think how close Duchamp was to anticipate the cut of Fontana's canvas. The same painting incorporates the shadows of his "Bicycle Wheel" and "Hat Rack", as well. Duchamp told Schwarz: "You can see the shadow of the cork screw as a ready-made rather than the cork screw itself".

Duchamp's myth tells us that he retired in 1924 in order to play chess. As previously explained, this is only partially true. He played a lot of chess and was a member of the French National Team of Chess.  Meanwhile, Duchamp, the artist, had gone underground and continued to work, in silence, on his last major work "Etant donnés: 1° la chutte d'eau, 2° le gaz d'eclairage." This piece was revealed only after his death on October 1, 1968.

Duchamp's ready-mades have had an enormous impact on our conception of art. Yet there are very few, who truly comprehend the extent of this transgressive break that lead to a new paradigm of art. By choosing an object without aesthetic consideration, Duchamp performed an artistic castling, which many still cannot accept. He went further than that, into, what Hector Obalk calls, "infrathin" a world where everything is superthin, something you could neither touch nor see. (62)

Click to enlarge

62. Marcel Duchamp. Photo Lüfti Özkök, Stockholm 1961.

In my view, Duchamp created his own syntax, i.e. a conceptual meta art - an art with cross-references to his own works and to other artists´ works. He created new ethereal and enigmatic works by interacting aspects of chance and ignorance. His art is an open concept of art with endless possibilities-his own mind as a readymade.

Afterward

During my research, I have found that the Swedish art context was probably the first to recognize Marcel Duchamp's works in a unique perspective without connecting him to Futurism, Dadaism, and Surrealism. Instead, Pontus Hultén focused on Duchamp's kinetic works while Ulf Linde focused on the ready-mades.

In my opinion, without Hultén's engagement in Kinetic art since the 1950's, that genre and category would not exist.

"Le Mouvement" at Galerie Denise René, Paris, 1955, "Marcel Duchamp" Bokkonsum, Stockholm, 1960, and "Art in Motion", Amsterdam, and Stockholm, 1961, and Louisiana, Humlebæck are all due to Hultén's initiative. In addition to his involvement in these shows, is the MoMA's exhibition, "The Machine," 1968-1969. As the director for the new Centre Pompidou (Beaubourg) in Paris, 1977, he arranged the first retrospective of Marcel Duchamp in France and in 1993 at Palazzo Grazzi, Venice.

© Leif Eriksson & The Swedish Archive of Artists´Books Malmö, Sweden. October 30, 2000. leif1.eriksson@telia.com

All illustrations, for this critical review, are taken by Leif Eriksson and selected from The Swedish Archive of Artists´Books, Malmö Sweden, when not otherwise stated.