Men Duchamps kamin er åbenbart en gammel nyhed

(og er det ikke Richard Hamilton foran kaminen på billedet!?)

Last work of surrealist Marcel Duchamp discovered

The last ever art work created by the influential French surrealist Marcel Duchamp has been discovered in an apartment in in northeastern Spain. 

By Fiona Govan, Madrid Correspondent

6:59PM BST 19 Aug 2008

The artist is believed to be responsible for a corner fireplace built within the residence in the resort of Cadaques in Catalonia where he spent the final months before his death in October 1968.

The work had been rumoured to exist after sketches of the design were found among the artist's papers after he died.

His friend and fellow member of the surrealist movement Man Ray had photographed a scale model of the design but it was unclear whether the fireplace and chimney above it had ever actually been built.

Duchamp, whose seminal piece - the 1917 urinal entitled "fountain" - was voted most influential artwork of the 20th century in a 2004 survey, was one of the leading members of the Dadaist and Surrealist movement.

The whereabouts of the elusive final work has been revealed by Huc Malla, director of an art gallery in the seaside town of Cadaques, who found the piece after a discussion with the British artist Richard Hamilton, a friend and follower of Duchamp.

"We knew about the chimney from references but it couldn't be found in the home Duchamp owned for the final seven years of his life," Mr Malla told The Daily Telegraph. "So I naturally thought it didn't exist until I met Richard Hamilton."
The British pop artist and creator of the cover for the Beatles' White Album directed him to a house that Duchamp had rented when he became too frail to climb the stairs of his own residence.
"He couldn't make it to the top floor so he rented somewhere else for the last months of his life and that is where he had the chimney built," Mr Malla explained.
Years later the property was sold and divided into flats. "The current owner who bought the place in 1989 had no idea of the importance of the structure in the corner of room but luckily it was in perfect condition," said Mr Malla.
He said that several art critics raised doubts over whether such a home improvement constituted "a work of art".
"But there is clearly an interest in the last creation by someone of Duchamp's stature," he said.

 

Det var Richard Hamilton (1922-2011), der gjorde nutidens hjem så anderledes, så indbydende

Trist på den værste, trivielle måde, selvom han blev en meget, meget gammel mand, at Englands pioner-popkunstner og verdens førende Duchamp-rekonstruktør Richard Hamilton døde i går i en alder af 89 år.

I sommerferien, da han stadig var levende  genså jeg på Tate Modern hans perfekte Duchamp-rekonstruktioner, det store glas etc., og på Tate Britain hans samlede, forgrublet stilige, grafiske værk på én lang væg og det cool, cool og sexede maleri "$he" i den ellers ikke ophidsende afdeling for moderne, britisk kunst (OK, der er også Bacon!).

Hamilton er en af 4 hovedpersoner (de andre er Duchamp, Bryan Ferry (der havde Hamilton som lærer i art school, og mig selv) i mit kæntrede work in progress Brian-Færgen læk, og hele tiden finder jeg anledninger til at skrive det umulige system/tilfældighedsdigt færdigt, nu er der en ny anledning, ærgerligt nok!

I Den Blå Port 75, 2007, er der et digt til Hamiltons legendariske collage "Just what is it that makes today's homes so different, so appealing" fra 1956 signeret mig:

jeg er ikke Richard Hamilton,

det er ikke mig, der krøllede

det 20. århundrede sammen,

ved at lave en collage, der

skulle forklare, hvorfor tidens

hjem var så anderledes, så

appellerende til købekraften,

som da virkelig var ved at

komme i omdrejninger og

snart skulle inspirere selv

kunsten til at gøre et attraktivt

spejltrick af sig selv, i form

af f.eks. det tegneseriemaleri

af Roy Lichtenstein, som

hænger dér på væggen ved

siden af portrættet af Adam

Oehlenschläger, og som han

slet ikke havde malet endnu,

Roy, han var stadig i færd med

at fiske Mickey ud af den eks-

pressive suppedas, ligesom

Claes Oldenburg heller ikke

havde lavet sin bløde skinke-

dåse dér på bordet, Hamilton

fik det hele for en slik, og

det gør ingen glad, slet ikke

en muskelmand ude af sit

element, som en slikkepind

tynger ned, han bliver melan-

kolsk, gør han, som det fjernsyn,

der naivt kun er i s/h, men til

gengæld nægter at slukkes,

selv af søvnløse, 85 år gamle

Richard Hamilton, der ikke er mig

Godnat, Richard, tak for den grandiose p-tærte!