Marcel Duchamp #1 (Paintings)

Inspired by a late photographic portrait of Marcel Duchamp, this painting transforms the French artist into a presence suspended between memory and disappearance. The partially erased forms vaguely recall certain portraits by Francis Bacon. The work belongs to The Paintings Section of Davis Museum Barcelona, one of the sections of this contemporary art mini museum created by Davis Lisboa in 2009.

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Davis Lisboa, Marcel Duchamp #1 (Paintings), 2012. Oil on linen, 30 × 30 × 3.5 cm (11.81 × 11.81 × 1.38 in).

This work, belonging to The Paintings Section of Davis Museum Barcelona, is based on a late photographic portrait of Marcel Duchamp taken in New York during the 1960s. Far removed from the more theatrical images associated with Dadaism, the painting presents the artist within a quiet and introspective atmosphere.

Through glazes, partially erased areas, and a restrained range of greys and blacks, the image exists between presence and disappearance. The figure, only loosely stabilized within the pictorial surface, acquires a subtle expressionist tension that discreetly recalls certain portraits by Francis Bacon, while also engaging with the tradition of photo-based painting associated with Gerhard Richter.

The work forms part of a conceptual museum project founded by Davis Lisboa in 2009, conceived as a mini museum, digital archive, and collective artistic project. Within The Paintings Section, the portraits and still lifes reinterpret key figures and works by artists who understood the museum as a form of art itself, including Boîte-en-valise by Marcel Duchamp, Galerie Légitime by Robert Filliou, and Musée d’Art Moderne, Département des Aigles by Marcel Broodthaers.