2026.06.16
gimme strength
Since I've kind of run out of new things to read regarding Duchamp, (and since I want to start writing a wholly new Duchamp After Unbekannt essay), I commenced rereading Thierry de Duve's and Barry Schwabsky's conversation "What do you do when anything goes?" (Artforum January 2024) in today's very early hours.
As I'm reading, I'm also collecting what I see as flaws within de Duve's ongoing "Duchamp's Telegram" [hypo]thesis, that is, until I read what de Duve refers to as "probably the most direct acknowledgment of receipt of the telegram":
The problem is though, when I think of being "allowed to put anything into" a box, I think of Joseph Cornell, and, moreover, I think Marcel Duchamp would also think of Joseph Cornell when it comes to being "allowed to put anything into" a box. Now suddenly I realize I should be rereading Joseph Cornell/Marcel Duchamp ... in resonance (1998).
 
It is within the Walter Hopps essay, "Gimme Strength: Joseph Cornell and Marcel Duchamp Remembered", that we learn how Hopps came to 'discover' Cornell's completely unknown Duchamp Dossier.
 
And, as I'm rereading the same essay, I discover that, at some point over the last 25 years, I drew tiny circles next to select sentences within the essay.
 
"He would fill a pillbox with pink sand, then stare at it as if it contained a whole universe of events. ... Both men had unusually private studio lives--very few people got down into Cornell's basement workroom, and Duchamp did most of his later work in a secret studio that perhaps only three people even knew about. ... I looked in each of the books to see what was in there, and I found two extraordinary things. One was volume XXII of a set of French agricultural journals: there were innumerable cutouts and collages integrated into it. On one of its pages was a collage portrait of Duchamp, and the book as a whole had become an extended symbolic portrait of him. The other unique object I found was the Duchamp Dossier, which was filed upright among the books. ... These boxes were not just repositories for drawings or studies; they involved a curious kind of arcane and obsessive private research."
Then:
"Most interestingly, the Duchamp Dossier also contained some signed Duchamp readymades, including the adjusted LePage's glue box. On the box where it says "strength," Duchamp had added the word "gimme," knowing that "gimme strength" was a slang phrase in America. He then signed it and gave it to Cornell, because he knew that for both of them, given the nature of their work, glue was essential."
1942.12.21
1942. Monday, New York City
At eleven o'clock in the morning Joseph Cornell [30.11.1942] calls to see Duchamp at 56 Seventh Avenue [2.10.1942]. The room is "a mess with débris" according to Cornell, but he is impressed with the view.
They talk for a couple of hours and, before Cornell leaves, Duchamp presents him with an on-the-spot readymade: a glue carton "gimme strength".
Ephemerides
question:
What do you do when anything goes?
answer:
gimme strength: cosmodada or bust
List of unbekannt works within Duchamp After Unbekannt
689. This One's for George
690. 20021005.db Philadelphia Benjamin Franklin Parkway/Axis of Life Ichnographia Campus Martius plans
691. seeing stars
692. 94021001.db Travel Agent [Siamese]
693. [crazy] sketch 007
694. [crazy] sketch 008
695. [crazy] sketch 009
696. virtual-collage/painting 1702111418
697. Virtual Unknown Reenacting a Virtual Unknown
698. flies the fanmail
699. double your pleasure, double your fun
700. Virtual Painting 100
701. Virtual Painting 106
702. 13021202.db Courthouse Plus Ultra model roofless axonometric
703. Monumental Musk "Let's Sue Him For Every Penny"
704. Criminal Left of Kennedy Center Right
705. enigma . . . or knot 001
706. enigma . . . or knot 002
707. enigma . . . or knot 004
708. enigma . . . or knot 007
709. enigma . . . or knot 011
710. 2021.02.14 Untitled [collage]
711. Wolfhilde von Schlittenfahrt Readymade Heirlooms . . . Untitled WvSRH 001
712. Concoction, Pair of Balls
713. What Religion Is This Again? Boxed Egg, Miss
714. 2021.02.15 Untitled [collage]
715. page painting 165
716. page painting 166
717. architectural otherness: Good-Bye House
718. architectural otherness: Ludi for Schinkel
719. 2021.02.16 Untitled [collage]
700. 2021.02.17 Untitled [collage]
721. Mary Boone's 180 hours of community service hour 2
722. Mary Boone's 180 hours of community service hour 4
723. House for Otto 6
724. House for Otto 7
725. Crack Scam 020
726. Crack Scam 022
727. Crack Scam 027
728. Crack Scam 030
729. Crack Scam 032
730. 920217n1.db studio still life 1 floating shapes
731. 920217n2.db still life 1 . . . . . .
2025.06.16
451 Rhawn Gallery
in the corner behind the door
2024.06.16
a work within This One's for George
page painting 176
2005.06.16
abracadabra, faia
Abra, good news. That was my broker on the other line, and now is the prefect time for me to liquify some of my funds, hence I can give you the go-a-head to start the schematic designs for my new LA gallery.
What site?
Oh, yeah. It's the one that you though would be best. And guess what? I've come up with the perfect name for the gallery--Rita Novel This Sontag. Gosh, I'm so excited. Magic architecture is going to be so big.
We'll do lunch soon. Ciao 4 now.
abracadabra, faia
Ja, ja. Zat iz da vun!
I can already see it: Rita Novel This Sontag on Lincoln Boulevard.
didja feel that???
That was just me jumping up and down with joy because I'm finally going to have an art gallery in Los Angeles and abracadabra, faia is going to be the architect.
didja feel that???
I started jumping when I first learned of the news from my broker, and after I was on the phone with abra, I called my cousin Siesta in Yucapai. She's one of the artists I represent.
didja feel that???
un-science fiction
didja feel that???
Yep. You know, she still thinks she invented that look. Just thank God you never see her when she's popping in to see her gynecologist. Apparently she's still waiting for the doctor to give her the thumbs up.
2004.06.16
The Artifacts of Ottopia
Otto is ever the collector of many things that will from time to time have a price tag or an opening bid. He's presently going through the stamp collection constructing a kind of 'Architecture of Post[-]agelessism'. And then there's also those staggering amounts of ephemera with heaps of true schizophrenic writing all over them. And that art collection! My goodness that art collection!
Artifacts of Ottopia
There are many items indeed, such as the Williams’ jail letters, Rosenthal china, Altötting viewmaster TV, stamps from Bavaria, the latest Piranesi prints (John the Baptist), O and S ephemera, old and new collages, architecture prints.
...compose new collages, compose new “rare” books in three ring binders and with plexiglas covers.
museumpeace coloring books
These are composed of cad art outlines, scans from the Denkmal plates, sculpture scans(?), and even the Schinkel plates.
continued writing work on The Odds of Ottopia
Einstein attends the Dougherty/Stotesbury wedding and the next day does an architectural tour with Otto and Kahn--Einstein Hospital, Belmont, Ahavath, Oser, Beth Sholom. I’m not sure where or if Frank Lloyd Wright fits into the scheme of the novel.
There may be a couple of “scenes” in the novel with Gordon (and friends sometimes) at Home Depot. I suppose Gordon supplies the "history" surrounding the world’s largest building implosion of the 20th century.
Compile material/dates regarding Leni Riefenstahl. She is going to capture/record a lot of Reenactment Season 2004.
Perhaps all the Rita Novel posts at archinect focus on/relate somehow to The Odds of Ottopia (TOOO).
Material for TOOO will also come out of the copy relating to each artifact of Ottopia.
Remember the weddings O and S already attended in 2004.
Otto's watching The Driver’s Seat; one of the gang’s favorite movies; the whole crazy death wish. Otto loves watching it with Warhol.
Note the addition of Helena’s paper “Pilgrimage, Reenactment and Tourism” for THTAFCC.
the Campo Marzio bibliography
...by John the Baptist Piranesi. This is a perfect “artifact” whereby “John the Baptist” is introduced to the world at large. The final "text" will comprise commentary and quotations. This is indeed where all the mistakes are called out.
1984.06.16
2 = odd, Dick
detail
detail
1972.06.16
Life magazine
Gene Davis Franklin's Footpath 1972
With 12 miles of masking tape, 400 gallons of special paint and a lot of stooping, artist Gene Davis created the world's largest painting. It covers a 31,464-square-foot parking area at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and may last five years." I fondly remember walking over it many times as a teenager going to the art museum.
1968.06.16
1968. Sunday, Cadaqués
"As you say, the earth has lost its equilibrium and consequently people their heads," writes Marcel to Brookes Hubachek, referring to the recent assassination of Robert Kennedy in Los Angeles.
He recounts again [1.6.1968] their escape from France. "on the day when there was no more distribution of gasoline--with a full tank and a jerry can of 20 litres we made it to Basel..." The news is now better from Paris, "but it seems that guerrilla warfare is replacing the barricade system there."
As for Cadaqués: "no turbulence for the moment and no signs of any in the near future."
*
Marcel also writes to Richard Hamilton asking him to thank John Russell for his article [6.6.1968] and whether he would intervene in the "delicate" problem of his return air tickets Zurich-London [4.6.1968], which Editions Alecto agreed to pay for.
Ephemerides
1966.06.16
1966. Thursday, London
"Beware of fresh paint" warns Duchamp in his address to about 100 fellow artists at a joyful dinner held in his honour at the Tate Gallery. "The biggest day in the lives of many little French boys is the day of their communion. But for me," he declares, "this is the greatest day. It is the first day of celebrations marking the opening of the Duchamp exhibition organized by Richard Hamilton for the Arts Council of Great Britain at the Tate Gallery. Over 240 works are displayed, including a number of replicas made by Hamilton, notably that of the Large Glass [5.2.1923], which has just been completed [31.5.1966].
A loan from Maria Martins, which Hamilton finds rather mysterious, is entitled Etant donnés le gaz d'éclairage et la chute d'eau. It is a small female torso with legs stretched apart, described in the catalogue as "pencil on vellum (?) over gesso, and velvet on cardboard", and has the following description in French on the back: "This Lady belongs to Maria Martins with all my affection Marcel Duchamp 1948-49."
"Are you Marcel Duchamp?" the man from the Observer Weekend Review asked Man Ray during the pre-preview for the Press. "Yes, I am," replied Man Ray. "Let me say that I'm pleased with my retrospective show at the Tate. I think the organization is wonderful. It's come at the right moment in my life. I was born in 1860, which makes me 106 right now ... I must introduce you to my friend, Marcel Duchamp."
The real Duchamp then told the journalist that life for him is cruel, ridiculous and meaningless: "I prefer chess, where people can be passionate and yet the gambits and mental activity ultimately, like life, mean nothing. Vanity is my one weakness you know, or otherwise I would have left the world years ago." Duchamp noticed two young women studying the famous Nude: one with her head enclosed in an aluminium helmet and her body sheathed in aluminium, the other in a very, very short skirt... The women looked at the Nude, and Duchamp looked at the women.
"They are exhibits too," he remarked to the New York Times reporter: "There really ought to be a photographer."
After autographing catalogues for the young women, he concentrated on answering the journalists' questions.
"Art is a matter of choice. You choose materials, tools, subject. The readymade," he explained, "skips the earlier stages and comes to the final conclusion."
Can art be anything? "Yes, anything," Duchamp replied.
William Marshall of the Mirror asked whether the exhibition is art or a gigantic leg-pull. Duchamp laughed and said: "Yes, perhaps it is just one big joke."
Ephemerides
1918.06.16
1918. Sunday, Paris
In the Mercure de France, Guillaume Apollinaire defends the Richard Mutt case by drawing on the facts and reasoning published in the
Blind Man [5.5.1917]. "The Society of Independent Artists' attitude is obviously absurd," he argues, "because it is based on an indefensible position that art cannot ennoble an object, and in the case in point it ennobled it singularly by transforming into Buddha an object of hygiene and male convenience."
By refusing to exhibit Fountain [9.4.1917], Apollinaire says, "they prove to be less liberal than the Paris Independants, who exhibited the painting by Boronali [18.3.1910], well aware that it was a joke or rather a put-up job, and they exhibited it simply because those who
had planned it had paid the twenty-five francs required to exhibit, and they do not believe either that they have the right to prohibit even a farce."
Ephemerides
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