Inventing Marcel Duchamp: The Dynamics of Portraiture »

Anne Collins Goodyear is Assistant Curator of Prints and Drawings at the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, in Washington, D.C.

James W. McManus is Professor of Art History at California State University, Chico.

An old genre is given a new look, as portraits and self-portraits of Marcel Duchamp invent and cover up as much as they reveal and portray.

Library Journal

Created in conjunction with a National Portrait Gallery exhibit, this book features many original and in-depth elements that allow it to stand on its own as a scholarly piece to be studied and critiqued by students of art. Goodyear (assistant curator, National Portrait Gallery) and McManus (art history, California State Univ., Chico) include portraits (paintings, collages, photographs, and sculptures) by Marcel Duchamp and portraits of Duchamp, and they encourage readers to examine Duchamp's life and image as depicted in portraits and to consider the larger role of portraiture in the 20th century. The first half of the book includes six well-cited essays addressing Duchamp's life and work, his work with women artists, portraits of Duchamp, Duchamp's self-portraits, and his portraits of others. The essays are followed by 103 portraits by Duchamp and other artists, including Man Ray, Alfred Stieglitz, Andy Warhol, and Jasper Johns. Each image is accompanied by a short description or discussion. A detailed chronology of Duchamp's life is also included. VERDICT A solid accomplishment; recommended for students and scholars of art history.—Valerie Nye, Coll. of Santa Fe, NM