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Hauser & Wirth Publishers Releases ‘Marcel Duchamp’ Monograph & Catalogue Raisonné More Than 60 years Since Original Edition

Hauser & Wirth Publishers Releases ‘Marcel Duchamp’ Monograph & Catalogue Raisonné More Than 60 years Since Original Edition December 13, 2021The Art Sentinel0 Comments

‘Marcel Duchamp’
Global release date: 8 November 2021

Volume I: Facsimile of the 1959 English edition of ‘Marcel Duchamp’ by Robert Lebel, with texts by Marcel Duchamp, André Breton and H.P. Roché, design and layout by Marcel Duchamp and Arnold Fawcus, hardcover

Volume II: Supplement, edited by Jean-Jacques Lebel & Association Marcel Duchamp, with texts by Jean-Jacques Lebel, Robert Lebel, Man Ray and Michael Taylor; foreword by Harald Falckenberg and an introduction by Michaela Unterdörfer, design and production by fluid, softcover

£100 / $125 / €110 / CHF 120

‘Marcel Duchamp’ became the go-to book on the legendary artist for many decades following its publication in late 1959, when editions in French and English were simultaneously released. After being out of print for more than sixty years, the Grove Press English edition is now back in circulation with Hauser & Wirth Publishers’ fully authorized facsimile of Duchamp’s seminal first monograph and catalogue raisonné.

This iconic title is the culmination of many years of Duchamp’s collaboration with its author, art historian and critic Robert Lebel. To this day, the book’s texts, which include chapters authored by Duchamp, H.P. Roché, and André Breton, remain just as relevant and impactful, as does Duchamp’s book design. Hauser & Wirth Publishers reanimates ‘Marcel Duchamp’ with its faithful reproduction of the 1959 Grove Press edition alongside Jean-Jacques Lebel, Robert Lebel’s son, and Association Marcel Duchamp, representing the artist’s estate.

The facsimile of the historic edition is presented in a slipcase with a supplement edited by Jean-Jacques Lebel and Association Marcel Duchamp. The supplement features texts and archival material that stitch together the story of Duchamp and Lebel’s close collaboration and, as contributor Michael Taylor writes, how the original publication signified a ‘sea change in the artist’s receptivity to critical interpretation.’

About the project
Over the past decade, Jean-Jacques Lebel and Association Marcel Duchamp, pursued a passion to reprint ‘Marcel Duchamp’. The prominent title introduced the revolutionary artist to English speaking audiences in the late 1950s and remains a vital point of reference for understanding Duchamp’s oeuvre, his wholly unique ideas and inner circle of artistic peers. Since 2018, Hauser & Wirth Publishers has been working alongside Lebel and Association Marcel Duchamp to realise the 2021 reedition, a testament to the trust bestowed on the imprint to see the project through to fruition. Re-creating a title that was fabricated more than 60 years ago required specialists; fluid, the curatorial-design studio helped by art historians and book specialists Axel Heil and Margrit Brehm, led this effort. They re-recreated the original typefaces as digital fonts, positioning each letter and image exactly where they were in the original. Paper conservators and printers were consulted, and together, the collaborative team worked to produce a facsimile that matches the edition that Duchamp personally signed off on in 1959, whilst working with contemporary printing tools.

Since Duchamp’s death in 1968, his legacy and influence has continued to grow and inspire new generations of artists. Hauser & Wirth Publishers specialises in lived art histories, and ‘Marcel Duchamp’ is considered the authoritative progenitor of this series. The reedition of ‘Marcel Duchamp’ brings readers closer to the lived experience and creative process of one of the most influential artists of the 20th century. Re-examining the artist-led publication more than a half-century after its original release is an indispensable feature of this project.
The supplement features a roster of texts that explore the relationship between Duchamp and Robert Lebel, considering the critical reception of the book, and extending the narrative of Duchamp’s community, life, and work that began in the monograph.

About Hauser & Wirth Publishers
Hauser & Wirth Publishers has championed artist books since 1992, where it has steadily flourished through partnerships with reputable imprints such as Hatje Cantz, JRP|Ringier, Snoeck, Steidl, Thames & Hudson, and Yale University Press, before publishing independently under its own imprint. Artists’ voices, exceptional art, scholarship, design, and bookmaking are at the heart of Hauser & Wirth Publishers’ program, which has been helmed by Michaela Unterdörfer since 2005.

Books are critical gateways to new ways of thinking and seeing; they provide vital, lasting records of artists’ works and ideas and the discourse they inspire. This is why publishing has been a cornerstone of the gallery’s activity since its founding and why Hauser & Wirth Publishers has grown to become a leading imprint for unique, object-like books that encourage an understanding and appreciation of modern and contemporary art. With the special access granted by artists to their writings and archives, Hauser & Wirth Publishers often brings new and overlooked aspects of an artist’s creative practice into focus.

For more information visit www.hauserwirth.com/publishers/

Tags: Association Marcel Duchamp, books, Hatje Cantz, Hauser & Wirth, Hauser & Wirth Publishers, JRP|Ringier, Snoeck, Steidl, Thames & Hudson, What We Adore Magazine, Yale University Press, ‘Marcel Duchamp’ by Robert Lebel