Princeton philosopher Gil Harman, posting playfully on Google+:
Latest artwork: Nuchamp’s Dude Descending a Staircase
Ok, a spoonerized version of
Duchamp’s Nude Descending a Staircase
(for the painting, see here).
The word play has appealed to many people.
(Obviously, the word play depends on the spread of vernacular dude ‘guy’, which would have been unknown to Duchamp, even if he had originally titled his work in English — though it would surely have entertained him.)
Two samplings from many for Dude Descending a Staircase:
A 2003 album by the British band Apollo 440: hip-hop sensibility, visuals that owe a lot to Warner Brothers’ Bugs Bunny:
[8/4: What follows was incorrect in the original posting, but has now been altered, thanks to comments from Arne Adolfsen.]
And a re-titling of a photo by Eliot Elisofon for Life magazine in 1952, originally “Duchamp Descending a Staircase” (with a clothed Marcel Duchamp reproducing the spirit of the original painting); in the re-titling as “Dude Descending a Staircase” (here), the photo was connected to the motion studies of Eadweard Muybridge :
August 3, 2012 at 8:32 pm |
I’m confused. What you label a Muybridge motion study is a picture Eliot Eliofson took for Life magazine in 1952 recreating Duchamp’s painting with a clothed Duchamp in place of the nude. Or am I missing something?
August 4, 2012 at 3:40 am |
No, you’re not confused; I am, by the information I got from the sources I first found. I’ll revise the posting.