Description: An engaging account of Marcel Duchamp's first retrospective and its significant place within the cultural milieu of Los Angeles in the 1960s
Marcel Duchamp's first retrospective in 1963, curated by the youthful and energetic curator Walter Hopps, was a singular moment in twentieth-century art history. This chronicle of its conception and execution reveals an ascendant cultural history of Los Angeles in the early 1960s. A reawakening to Duchamp's impact on contemporary thought was on full display first in California--accompanied by a remarkable cast of artists, curators, critics, gallerists, and collectors, including Larry Bell, Billy Al Bengston, Ed Bereal, Wallace Berman, George Brecht, William N. Copley, Sam Francis, Joe Goode, Richard Hamilton, Dennis Hopper, Robert Irwin, Ed Kienholz, Alison Knowles, Gerard Malanga, Marisol, Patty Mucha, Claes Oldenburg, Richard Pettibone, Ed Ruscha, Andy Warhol, and Robert Watts. With detailed installation diagrams and reproductions of every art object displayed published here for the first time, Duchamp in California shows why the exhibition is revered as an exemplar of curatorial practice for its compelling design and critical acclaim. Distributed for the Menil Collection and Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther und Franz KönigReview Quotes: "Exceptionally well written, thoroughly researched, and beautifully designed. There is no better document on the conception, realization, and aftermath of this important show and its influence on the artists of Southern California and beyond."--Francis M. Naumann, author of Marcel Duchamp: The Art of Making Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
"Written and illustrated in a cinematic style, this is among the top ten Marcel Duchamp books ever published."--Ecke Bonk, author of Marcel Duchamp: The Portable Museum "The biography of an exhibition. Meticulously researched and illustrated with hundreds of period photographs, posters, artworks, and letters, the book is an authoritative, vivid, and suspenseful work of art history."--Deborah Treisman, coauthor of The Dream Colony: A Life in Art