Marcel Duchamp's Scandalous Works: From Semen Landscape to Secret Diorama

Marcel Duchamp's lesser-known erotic works, created from the 1940s onward, provoked scandal through their unconventional materials and explicit themes. In 1946, Duchamp made 'Paysage fautif' (Faulty Landscape) using his own semen, dedicated to his Brazilian lover Maria Martins; the seminal fluid was not identified until 1989. The following year, he produced 'Prière de toucher' (Please Touch), a three-dimensional rubber breast on black velvet, for the cover of the catalog 'Le Surréalisme en 1947', accompanying the 'Exposition Internationale du Surréalisme'. In 1950, Duchamp created bronze-plated plaster objects, including 'Not a Shoe' and 'Coin de chasteté' (Wedge of Chastity), the latter a wedding gift to his second wife Alexina 'Teeny' Matisse in 1954. Other works from this period include 'Object Dard' (1951), a phallic pun on 'objet d'art', and 'Feuille de vigne femelle' (Female Fig Leaf), an imprint from a female body. After Duchamp's death, these pieces were linked to his final work, 'Étant donnés' (Given), assembled secretly from 1946 to 1966 and installed at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Viewers peer through eye-holes in a wooden door to see a female figure with a gas lamp in a landscape with waterfalls; Maria Martins modeled for the figure. The work's full title is 'Étant donnés: 1° la chute d'eau / 2° le gaz d'eclairage'. Duchamp left no notes, so its meaning remains enigmatic, though it reflects Freudian themes of sexual impulses and Eros.