Marcel Duchamp 15 (Dead)
A restrained and atmospheric painting derived from Man Ray’s lost photograph of Marcel Duchamp on his deathbed, Marcel Duchamp 15 (Dead) transforms a vanished image into a work of quiet physical presence. Built through precise modeling, subtle light, and a suspended blue tonality linked to Davis Museum Barcelona, the painting brings together historical reference, formal control, and conceptual clarity within Davis Lisboa’s Full Color Period.
Original · Signed · Certificate
€920
Product Details
Davis Lisboa, Marcel Duchamp 15 (Dead), 2019. Oil on linen, 60 × 60 × 3.5 cm (23.6 × 23.6 × 1.38 in).
The work begins with an absent image: Man Ray’s lost photograph of Marcel Duchamp on his deathbed. Rather than reconstructing it, the painting repositions the image as a restrained presence, suspended between memory and disappearance.
The surface is built through precise modeling and controlled tonal transitions, closer to an academic pictorial sensibility than to the photographic blur of Gerhard Richter’s photo-paintings. A dominant blue tonality—drawn from the corporate blue of Davis Museum Barcelona—anchors the composition in a quiet, suspended atmosphere.
As part of The Paintings Section from Davis Museum Barcelona, the work extends a critical lineage in which the museum operates as both structure and fiction, in dialogue with Boîte-en-valise, Galerie légitime, and Musée d’Art Moderne, Département des Aigles. The square format reinforces this condition, asserting the painting as an object within a self-reflexive system.
A subtle shift in light defines this work: a faint warmth in the face activates the composition from within while maintaining its overall restraint. This refinement, together with a more resolved handling of form, heightens the painting’s physical presence and situates it within the Full Color Period at a point of clear maturity.
Additional information
| Weight | 3.3 kg |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 50 × 50 × 3.5 cm |
