Abstract Portrait of Marcel Duchamp
Katherine S. Dreier
American, 1877–1952
1918
An oil on canvas in which Katherine S. Dreier builds an abstract ‘portrait’ of Marcel Duchamp from interlocking geometric and machine-like forms that suggest his ideas rather than his features.
You’re struck by a large spinning disc pierced by diagonals, horn-like curves and sharp triangles, a dynamic collage of color and shape that pushes and pulls like a visual machine.
Painted in 1918, the work reconceives portraiture for the modern age and reflects Dreier’s role in bringing Cubist, Futurist and Dada experiments into an abstract language that championed Duchamp’s radical rethinking of art and everyday objects.
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
18 x 32" (45.7 x 81.3 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Fund
Accession
279.1949
Palette
Exhibitions
