Summary
Duchamp painted Coffee Mill for his brother, the sculptor Raymond Duchamp-Villon, who, at the time of his wedding, asked a number of his artist friends to make small works to decorate his kitchen. As Duchamp later recollected: 'I made this old-fashioned coffee mill for him. It shows the different facets of the coffee grinding operation and the handle on top is seen simultaneously in several positions as it revolves. You can see the ground coffee in a heap under the cogwheels of the central shaft, which turns in the directions of the arrow on top.' (d'Harnoncourt and McShine, p.256.)
The year after he painted Coffee Mill Duchamp attracted considerable attention exhibiting his most Cubist work, Nude Descending a Staircase, 1912 (Philadelphia Museum of Art) at the Armory Show in New York… (read more)
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