FROM 14 OCTOBER 2023 until 18 March 2024, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice – located in the stunning Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, on the Grand Canal – is presenting Marcel Duchamp and the Lure of the Copy. The exhibition is devoted exclusively to the French artist Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968) who was a friend of Peggy Guggenheim for many years. Duchamp is legendary for challenging the cult of an original work of art by producing duplications and copies in different media and varying sizes and limited editions of art. He redefined what constitutes an original artwork and the role of the artist. This exhibition brings together 60 artworks that date from 1911 to 1968 and includes radical pieces that challenged the art world in the 20th century.
Born in Normandy and living in Paris, Duchamp, alongside his brother Raymond Duchamp-Villon (1876-1918),, 1912; his ‘ready-made’ works of art, became famous for everyday shop-bought objects being turned into works of art or anti-art. They included a wine rack, titled , 1914 (replicated 1959); a snow shovel, , 1915 (original lost, several replicas) and an upturned urinal, 1917 signed ‘R. Mutt’ (original lost, replica created in 1964).
