Étant donnés: 1° la chute d'eau, 2° le gaz d'éclairage . . . (Given: 1. The Waterfall, 2. The Illuminating Gas . . . )

Currently not on view

Étant donnés: 1° la chute d'eau, 2° le gaz d'éclairage . . . (Given: 1. The Waterfall, 2. The Illuminating Gas . . . )

1946-1966

Marcel Duchamp (American (born France), 1887–1968)

In 1923, after abandoning The Large Glass, Marcel Duchamp let it be known that he had stopped making art in order to devote himself to his favorite pastime, chess. Thus the news, after Duchamp's death in 1968, that he had actually spent the last two decades of his life working secretly on an elaborate, final project was greeted with universal surprise. Accompanied only by a carefully compiled installation manual, the content of the piece remained mysterious while its bold realism shocked both Duchamp's champions as well as his detractors. In accordance with the artist's final wishes, the piece was acquired by the Cassandra Foundation and offered to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where it took its place nearby the artist's other major works in 1969.

Currently not on view

Object Details

Title:

Étant donnés: 1° la chute d'eau, 2° le gaz d'éclairage . . . (Given: 1. The Waterfall, 2. The Illuminating Gas . . . )

Date:

1946-1966

Artist:

Marcel Duchamp (American (born France), 1887–1968)

Medium:

Mixed media assemblage: (exterior) wooden door, iron nails, bricks, and stucco; (interior) bricks, velvet, wood, parchment over an armature of lead, steel, brass, synthetic putties and adhesives, aluminum sheet, welded steel-wire screen, and wood; Peg-Board, hair, oil paint, plastic, steel binder clips, plastic clothespins, twigs, leaves, glass, plywood, brass piano hinge, nails, screws, cotton, collotype prints, acrylic varnish, chalk, graphite, paper, cardboard, tape, pen ink, electric light fixtures, gas lamp (Bec Auer type), foam rubber, cork, electric motor, cookie tin, and linoleum

Dimensions:

7 feet 11 1/2 inches × 70 inches × 49 inches (242.6 × 177.8 × 124.5 cm)

Classification:

Sculpture

Credit Line:

Gift of the Cassandra Foundation, 1969

Accession Number:

1969-41-1

Geography:

Made in New York, New York, United States, North and Central America

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Currently not on view