Finding Duchamp and Red 351

As a tempter into the world of contemporary art Duchamp's Fountain and the controversy over it  is difficult to ignore and is up there with the screen prints and Soup cans of Andy Warhol as signifiers in Modern Art.

Cover art

I've been to quite a few session at City Lit, these have included short courses and some where we've had the chance to explore bits of London and to date I don't think any have failed to delight.


And so it was for me this Sunday when a group of interested seekers of the essence of Duchamp congregated in Room 113 of the City Lit HQ to find more of the enigmatic Marcel.

The doors of perception perhaps

We were fortunate in having a course leader in Rachel Sanders who was positively fizzing with enthusiasm and equipped with  materials to reinforce her position that Duchamp was (and remains) a key figure in the art firmament.






What we had on this  'Focus on' course was various summaries of the 'schools' that Duchamp impacted during his more than 50 years of exploration and something on how he engaged in themes - I now will find out more about the man who (unlike so many artists) was about the work rather than the public persona.

Another book on Marcel

I had not really been able to really engage with the full challenge of what Duchamp did in his works like The Bride Stripped Bare.. and the site specific Etant Donnés but now at least feel that I have a place where I can start from.

[ The Bride Stripped Bare is of course a music album by Bryan Ferry who was taught Art  by uber Duchamp Fan Richard Hamilton.]

Of course there are a myriad of ways into the subject and I reckon that a feminist critique would reveal some of what we'd call in the 21st century male misogyny.

As Rachel said (to paraphrase)  in her  introduction to the course 'if we had more questions at the end of the course than at the beginning' then she'd consider it a success - well from me then it was a big success.

Red 351

undoubtedly there'll be some issues around defining red (I know Coca-Cola have struggled with this in their TV advertising) - this shopping trolley looks a little orangey but when I took the picture I had no doubt about it being Red

A shopping trolley that's bright and functional