Untitled by Nicéphore Niépce
I couldn’t help by noticing how very similar in feel this 19th century photograph is to Marcel Duchamp’s last work Etant donnés (and btw, I am looking for a precise date of when this work was first presented to the general public)
[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUkybjwRBns]
“Bleu” by Etants Donnés
Etants Donnés is the name of duo consisting of the brothers Hurtado (Marc and Eric), founded in Grenoble in 1980. Their name takes its direct inspiration from the last work by Marcel Duchamp. They made six films between 1982 and 1994, composed numerous scores and collaborated with major figures of the industrial rock genre: Genesis P-Orridge, Alan Vega, Michael Gira, Lydia Lunch and Mark Cunningham.
the original Etant Donnes in my favourite work of art ever. followed closely by Bernini’s Apollo and Daphne
Re: Duchamp – do you mean you want the day in 1969 it was “revealed” to the public? The museum lists its accession as 1969, and an article I came across implied that it was unveiled one year after his death in October of 1968.
Nurse – have you seen the Duchamp? Is that what you meant by originals, as opposed to photos?
What a contrast, Duchamp-Bernini, L’Etants, Apollo & Daphne! Do you think we are Apollos to the the partly visible Daphne? We neither of us get her, do we?
Untitled by Nicéphore Niépce as to be corrected for “history” … thank You
© P-Y Mahé/Speos.fr/Gamma
These photographs on modern film were shot with a reproduction of one of Niépce’s camera.
Lichanos and all,
Thanks, I knew it was 1969 but I’d like to find out the exact day to be able to place on my wiki timeline.
Jan
Mahé,
Thanks for your additions.
Jan
I suggest an archive search of the Philadelphia newspapers to get the exact date, or a note to the museum. It’s a wonderful place. Have you seen it? It is a buff colored sandstone mega-Greek temple complete with polychrome sculpture. A fitting home for L’Etant.
No I haven’t I’m sorry to say, and I am also surprised that the work came so late to my attention. I’ve been interested in transgressive art since a very long time, but I never actually considered this one until Ombres Blanches brought it to my attention via the Black Dahlia link.
The gaslamp is a phallic symbol, so this is clearly an allegory of rape.
Jan
The gaslamp is a phallic symbol, so this is clearly an allegory of rape.
Plausible, yes, but I would hesitate to place any single, clear, and allegorical meaning on this work. It sucks you in and shreds your notions…
Why see the gaslamp as a phallic symbol? Why not just as what it is, illumination and flame. With the flame as fire, the waterfall, and the earth and air you have the four elements. Why not just see it in the tradition of pictures of Earth, Nature, fertility, Venus sleeping in landscape, Courbet’s “Origin of the World”.
The seperation caused by the barn doors and rustic wall adds the anguish of frustrated desire.
Duchamp also did an etching of the figure with the lamp ,”Le Bec Auer”, with the addition of a male figure suggesting a domestic scene of post coital relaxation.
It’s funny how you should mention the four elements with regards to this work.
I guess my response would be that we’ve gone from a mythologized world to a sexualized world via Darwin and Freud.
All the imagery now is reduced to elements of sexuality, base materialism. In the past everything had a magical element to it.
Although when you say: …. The seperation caused by the barn doors and rustic wall adds the anguish of frustrated desire. you do follow the Freudian path.
The mythologized world seems pretty sexual to me. Women copulating with bulls, sons sleeping with mothers, adultery galore, Hera giving blowjobs … have you been reading the Bowlderized versions?
I couldn’t agree more with P. Rumsey:
“…Why not [see it] just as what it is,…”
I happen to believe the piece is all that he intimates, and a hyper-ironic comment on things being just what they are, and no more.
P.S. Duchamp, for whatever reason, was preoccupied with that gaslamp. He made numerous drawings of it all his life.
In mythology we project our image into the world, we become part of nature, with the hybrids of human form with animals, plants and minerals, the Earth goddess etc. But this is a poetic imagining of a scientific fact, because we ARE part of nature, we procreate like the rest of the animal kingdom, we are made of the same substance, water, elements, atoms as the landscape.
But we are also seperate, because of our consciousness we are also observing the world and ourselves, and this act of observing seperates us.
“…Why not [see it] just as what it is,…”
I’m afraid I can’t ever see things just as they are, although I’ve learnt to “never argue with popular”.
but Lichanos and Paul,
Your knowledge and insights clearly outstrip mine, I am at a loss for words.
She holds up her lamp to illuminate that which is already illuminated as clear as day….
I ignore Freud because if, for example, a lamp is a phallic symbol, then what is an artist to use as a lamp symbol?
Hee hee hee! Good one, Mr. Rumsey!