Marcel Duchamp, Porte Chapeau (Hat Rack)
Conceived in 1917/Executed in 1964
Wooden hat rack diam: 10 1/4 x 18 in. edition: 5/8 + 3 APs
Photo: National Gallery of Canada.
© Association Marcel Duchamp / ADAGP, Paris / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York 2018
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
Independence Ave. at 7th St., SW
Washington, DC
Third Floor, Outer Ring Floor Plan
The first of a two-part exhibition, this part features the recent gift of over 50 major historical artworks, including more than 35 seminal works by Duchamp, promised to the museum by Washington, D.C., collectors Barbara and Aaron Levine. This transformative gift marks the Hirshhorn as one of the largest public holdings of Duchamp works in the nation.
The showcases a number of Duchamp’s most famous readymades, including Hat Rack, Comb, Apolinère Enameled, With Hidden Noise, L.H.O.O.Q., and Why Not Sneeze?, which together embody Duchamp’s then-radical idea that an artist’s ideas are more important than craft or aesthetics. Also prominently featured are a number of Duchamp’s unique drawings and prints related to his magnum opus, The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even (The Large Glass), including Pendu Femelle, Studies for the Bachelors in the Cemetery of Uniforms and Liveries, No. 2, Bride, and Nine Malic Moulds. The exhibition also includes portraits of Duchamp, as well as works by his contemporaries and those he influenced, including Man Ray, Tristan Tzara, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Diane Arbus, and Irving Penn, among others.
The second stage of the exhibition will examine Duchamp’s lasting impact through the lens of the Hirshhorn’s permanent collection, including significant works by a diverse roster of modern and contemporary artists.
