Marcel Duchamp's suitcase is unpacked in China
The father of modern art gets his biggest outing yet in Asia
Marcel Duchamp began constructing his portable museums in 1935. By 1941 the French-American artist now known as the father of modern art had assembled 300 “Boite-en-valise”, or “Box in a suitcase”.
Each was a treasure trove packed with miniature reproductions of his key works. Now the box is being opened for the first time in Beijing, for the exhibition “Du-champ and/or/in China” at the Ullens Centre for Contemporary Art. The limited edition of 300 “Boite-en-valise” released in 1941 was added to through the remaining years of Duchamp’s life, and completed after his death in 1968 by his widow, Alexina.
The first 20 boxes in the edition were all placed in a leather suitcase hence the name, Box in a suitcase, and considered “deluxe” because they each contain a unique item. The edition on show in Beijing is notable for the bright red leather of the box, and contains 80 reproductions of different Duchamp works. The exhibition also displays works by 15 Chinese contemporary artists, including Huang Yongping, Wu Shanzhuan, Zheng Guogu and Yan Lei.
This is the most comprehensive exhibition on Duchamp ever mounted in China, says UCCA director Tinari Philip, and also explores his lingering influence on contemporary art in China.
In the 1980s, as China began to engage with the Western art of the early 20th century, artists like Wu and Huang found direct inspiration from Duchamp’s works.
Huang reflected in 1987 that, “Only now am I really able to understand the state of mind that made Duchamp say, ‘The traditional idea of the painter with his brush, his palette, his turpentine, is an idea which has already disappeared from my life.’ This is a revolutionary and irreversible change for me.”
In the 1990s, a new generation of Chinese artists discovered Duchamp.
Among them was Yan Lei, who shows a painting from his “Covers” series, depicting Duchamp’s infamous “Fountain” urinal. Zheng Guogu, meanwhile, has cast a group of ordinary plastic bottles in brass, echoing Duchamp’s famous “bottle rack” readymade.
