MoMA Duchamp Retrospective Questions His Bourgeois Legacy

A major Marcel Duchamp retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York—the first in North America since 1973—presents the artist's readymades and other works, but a critical review argues that Duchamp's radicalism was undermined by his own bourgeois values and collaboration with the art establishment. The exhibition includes iconic readymades like a snow shovel and bottle rack, as well as the Monte Carlo Bond (1924), a certificate Duchamp designed to fund a roulette scheme, later donated to MoMA in 1938. The review contends that Duchamp's readymades, intended to subvert the museum, instead reinforced its power; his efforts to consolidate his legacy—choosing the Philadelphia Museum of Art as a permanent home and producing certified replicas in the 1960s—revealed a desire for stability and market success. The article cites Duchamp's correspondence with Jacques Doucet, Katherine Dreier, Walter and Louise Arensberg, and André Breton, and notes his roles as a dealer and curator. The review concludes that the retrospective perpetuates nostalgia for a failed rebellion, urging artists to try a different gambit.