DUCHAMP & PROUST: Renaissance of Perspectives

Gail Hastings, Katharina Neuburger and Renate Wiehager

In 1913, Marcel Proust published the first volume of his seven-part novel ‘In Search of Lost Time’. At the same time, Marcel Duchamp retired from painting and sought new forms of artistic expression as a librarian in Paris. The idea of the readymade was born, and Duchamp completed his first sketches for his masterpiece ‘The Large Glass’ that in his words was nothing less than ‘a rehabilitation of perspective, which had then been completely ignored and disparaged’. In the early 20th century, Proust and Duchamp, two defining proponents of radically new conceptions of art, once again dealt with the limits and possibilities of perspective. Together, via ‘research’ and artistic investigations, they approached the elementary aspects of perception, cognition and representation conceptually grounded in the world of Renaissance ideas. Both artists, however, went far beyond their contemporaries in rediscovering the era. The materials and motifs Proust and Duchamp used in writing and in images reveal surprising parallels: sketches and notations, lines and glass, aligned constructions, optical devices and everyday objects, windows, doors and eyes. Published on the occasion of the exhibition ‘Perspectives: Futurisms’ at Mercedes-Benz Contemporary, Berlin, which presents advanced artistic approaches on the subject from the 1960s to today, the publication ‘Renaissance of Perspectives: Duchamp & Proust’ is the fourth volume in a series that began in 2017 on Marcel Duchamp’s work and influence.

Exhibition: Perspectives: Futurisms Mercedes-Benz Contemporary Berlin, 2023.