Please join us at Galerie Marian Goodman in Paris for the book launch of “Duchamp’s Telegram” by Thierry de Duve at 79 rue du Temple, 75003. A conversation will take place between the author and Jean-Pierre Criqui.

In 1917, Marcel Duchamp sent a “telegram” in the form of a photo of a urinal named Fountain and signed R. Mutt. Arriving at its destination a good forty years later, the subject of the "telegram" was both celebrated and vilified for proclaiming that everything could be art, and the entire Western art world was reconfigured almost instantly as “post-Duchampian.”

This book offers an interpretation of Duchamp's "telegram" that sheds new light on its first reception, corrects specific historical errors and reveals that Duchamp's urinal, in fact, announced the end of the Beaux-Arts system and the advent of what Thierry de Duve calls the “Art-in-General” system. The author further shows that this new system did not date from the 1960s, as one might expect, but from the 1880s. Duchamp is neither its creator nor its agent, but simply its brilliant messenger.

Seating is limited. Please confirm your attendance by email: parisrsvp@mariangoodman.com