Marcel Duchamp 5

Davis Lisboa, Marcel Duchamp 5, 2016. Oil on canvas, 40 × 40 × 3.5 cm (15.75 × 15.75 × 1.38 in)

In Marcel Duchamp 5, Davis Lisboa brings a historical image into the space of painting with notable formal economy. Based on a 1920s photograph of Marcel Duchamp, the work does not seek to reproduce the document, but rather to activate its presence through an image that is restrained, precise, and deliberately unstable.

The figure emerges from a surface of softened contours and subtle transitions, where the portrait seems to oscillate between definition and disappearance. This suspended quality places the work in an intermediate territory between photographic memory and pictorial construction, reinforcing its visual density without relying on narrative emphasis.

The cool palette, characteristic of Lisboa’s Blue Period, structures the composition through tonal restraint and heightens its atmosphere of distance and concentration. The result is a painting that asserts its material autonomy while preserving the iconic force of its source.

Integrated into The Paintings Section from Davis Museum Barcelona, the work extends an ongoing inquiry into key figures of artistic modernity and the ways in which painting can reconsider the history of the image.