Étant Donnés

Hey

 

So my lectures are finally finished for the year and now I am under the task of studying for exams which I am not looking forward to.

 

While my primary interest of Art History is the High Renaissance and the Baroque period I am also fascinated with the art group Dada which was active in response to World War One.  One of favourite artists in this group is Marcel Duchamp and I particularly like his assemblage called Étant Donnés. The piece is a 3D environmental tableau and is located in the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

 

One of the reasons why this piece interests me is that to view the assemblage you have to look through this door.  This aspect gives the piece a specific perspective and gives the feeling that your looking at something that's hidden with the viewing peeping through the hole in the door.

This amazing assemblage is what is on the other side of the door and transports the viewer into another world.  The figure is made of leather, glass and linoleum and is modelled on two different women.  The landscape is made from hand painted photographed elements while the lantern is made by an electrical motor in a biscuit tine which rotates a perforated disc.  The piece also has a mini waterfall.

 

This piece as well as most of Duchamp's works challenged the traditions of the art world with him using found material and was deliberately designed to shock.

 

Hope you like this piece, its a bit different and strange but is cool and interesting once you know its context.