Marcel Duchamp #4 (Paintings)

Davis Lisboa, Marcel Duchamp #4 (Paintings), 2016. Oil on linen, 30 × 30 × 3.5 cm (11.8 × 11.8 × 1.38 in).

Inspired by a historical photograph of Marcel Duchamp taken during his 1963 retrospective at the Pasadena Art Museum, this painting isolates the artist from a larger documentary context and transforms that archival image into a concentrated portrait. While the original photograph records Duchamp in relation to the exhibition, the painting narrows its focus, shifting attention from display to presence.

Rather than preserving the source as a stable historical document, the work subjects it to a process of visual reduction. The figure appears partially dissolved, allowing the image to emerge through a restrained and concentrated pictorial field that privileges structure over description.

Executed in a blue monochrome palette, the painting establishes a direct connection to the visual identity of Davis Museum Barcelona. The square format reinforces this relationship, echoing the museum’s cubic geometry while situating the portrait within a controlled and self-contained spatial logic.

Originally developed as part of The Paintings Section from Davis Museum Barcelona, this work was created within the only section of the museum in which artworks have circulated through acquisition.

Within this broader framework, it extends a lineage shaped by Marcel Duchamp’s Boîte-en-valise, Robert Filliou’s Galerie légitime, and Marcel Broodthaers’ Musée d’Art Moderne, Département des Aigles, where the museum itself becomes an artistic medium.

The Geert De Kegel Collection, Zele, Belgium.