Erwin Blumenfeld

Kapitalist

1923-24

Shusaku Arakawa Still Life, from To and From Rrose Selavy, for Marcel Duchamp, 1967 Limited Edition Silkscreen on velincarton (thin board) paper 10 1/2 × 13 1/4 inches Limited Edition of 60 Hand signed, titled and dated on the front Unframed The entire portfolio, including the present work, is referenced in the Marcel Duchamp catalogue raisonne: Arturo Schwarz The Complete Works of Marcel Duchamp, Abrams, P.532, 344c Eager to share Marcel Duchamp with Japanese audiences, Shuzo Takiguchi - a Japanese-born poet, critic, and artist with ties to Surrealist circles, assembled an international portfolio of graphic works by various artists with strong ties to Duchamp, to accompany the deluxe version of his monograph, "To and From Rrose Sélavy". The present work was created for this portfolio by one of Marcel Duchamp's friends, Shusaku Arakawa. It is signed, dated and titled on the front - and can be exhibited both vertically and horizontally - (see photos). The present work, along with others in the portfolio, was published in Japan and is rarely found stateside. Shusaku Arakawa (荒川 修作 Arakawa Shūsaku, July 6, 1936 – May 18, 2010) who spoke of himself as an “eternal outsider” and “abstractionist of the distant future,” first studied mathematics and medicine at the University of Tokyo, and art at the Musashino Art University. He was a member of Tokyo’s Neo-Dadaism Organizers, a precursor to The Neo-Dada movement. Arakawa’s early works were first displayed in the infamous Yomiuri Independent Exhibition, a watershed event for postwar Japanese avant-garde art. Arakawa arrived in New York in 1961 with fourteen dollars in his pocket and a telephone number for Marcel Duchamp, whom he phoned from the airport and over time formed a close friendship. He started using diagrams within his paintings as philosophical propositions. Jean-Francois Lyotard has said of Arakawa’s work that it “makes us think through the eyes,” and Hans-Georg Gadamer has described it as transforming “the usual constancies of orientation into a strange, enticing game—a game of continually thinking out.” Quoting Paul Celan...

Wood and metal metronome with printed eye. Initialed and numbered 16/200 in felt tip pen and ink on printed label on bottom of object. Published by the New York Cultural center. Con...