Looking Through Duchamp's Door: Art and Perspective in the Work of Duchamp, Sugimoto and Jeff Wall

By Hans Belting

Book Overview

In this new book by Hans Belting, three essays are united by one common problem - the need for perspective after the end of perspective in modern art. Hans Belting not only opens up new ways of looking at the works of Marcel Duchamp, Hiroshi Sugimoto and Jeff Wall, but also deals with the concept of perspective in their work. The door that Marcel Duchamp installed in Philadelphia is a metaphor for a brilliant strategy that redirects the worn-out view of perspective back to one's self. Hiroshi Sugimoto and Jeff Wall, two protagonists of photography in contemporary art, both looked through this door as they became artists and have both referenced Duchamp time and again. It was a bout of seasickness on a trip to Buenos Aires that gave Duchamp the impulse for his highly original reflection on horizon, perspective and gravity. Belting's analysis and surprising discoveries also open up a new way of looking at Duchamp - a lifelong experiment, in which art, in the name of perspective, is freely negotiated with the viewer. Belting's knowledgeable and coherent reasoning makes for a captivating book, embellished with 65 illustrations to help lead the reader through the pictorial art of perspective.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 3865606059
• ISBN13: 9783865606051
• Release Date: February 2010
• Publisher: Walther Konig Verlag
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 1.12 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.6" x 9.3"