by Jon Lackman | 12 July 2010 | Books, Modern
The book Duchamp and the Aesthetics of Chance: Art as Experiment, an investigation of the artist’s 3 Standard Stoppages (1913-14), by Herbert Molderings, had already appeared in German and French, and is now available in English too. The book attempts to overturn the popular of image of Duchamp as an “artist-engineer-scientist,” arguing instead that he “subverted scientism in favor of a radical individualistic aesthetic and experimental vision.” Scholar Lars Blunck reviewed the book very favorably in 2006 (“dieser wunderbaren Studie”). On a related note, it seems worth noting that various recent exhibitions have addressed modern artists’ interest in chance, for example last year’s “Chance Aesthetics” at Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum.
