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The French artist Marcel Duchamp once said that the only
universally understood 'ism' was eroticism. In one of his
most famous works, The Bride Stripped Bare by her Bachelors,
Even (1915-23), Duchamp represented the erotic relationship
between men and women using analogies drawn from physics and
engineering. He described the wasp-like 'bride' figure in
the upper half of the work, and the 'bachelors' in the lower
half, as 'desire motors', destined to continually 'spark'
each other.
The works in this room explore this concept of mechanised
desire, often with a liberal dose of humour. Francis Picabia
and Man Ray shared Duchamp's taste for irony and satire, and
all three went on to become associated with the surrealist
movement. In Man Ray's photographs, objects such as an eggbeater
and a bell-push mimic parts of the body. Picabia's Paroxysm
of Suffering (1915) depicts machine parts that resemble
the figure of a woman. The title suggests her turning action
would cause pain. If sex was merely a physical process, like
the action of machines, then the body of the beloved might
equally be seen as a system of cogs and gears, albeit one
linked to human emotions.
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Marcel Duchamp, The Bride Stripped Bare by her Bachelors, Even (The Large Glass), 1915-23, Tate © Succession Marcel Duchamp/ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2001 |
