Marcel Duchamp: Inventing the Presence

The fifth volume in the Duchamp Research Centre’s Poiesis series examines the artist’s work from philosophical, art historical, and literary perspectives

With his sharp wit and love of controversy, Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968) pushed every possible boundary in the art world across his vast body of work, from his iconic urinal-as-sculpture Fountain piece to his drag alter ego Rrose Sélavy.

Founded in 2009, the Duchamp Research Centre operates out of the Staatliche Museum Schwerin in Germany, using its impressive 92-piece Duchamp collection as the basis for its interdisciplinary exploration of the artist’s life and work. Since 2011, the Research Centre has published the results of its investigations in a series entitled Poiesis after the philosophical term for bringing something new into existence–an idea that perfectly describes Duchamp’s pioneering work. This is the fifth volume in the series.