About

Overview

The Duchamp Research Portal is an online platform that aggregates a selection of digitized archival holdings and museum collections at three partner institutions to make a significant portion of primary source materials related to Marcel Duchamp accessible and discoverable through a single interface.

Marcel Duchamp

Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968) was one of the most influential artists of the modern era. He changed the way we think about art. Duchamp’s work—which includes paintings, sculptures, prints, and readymades—represents a legacy that informs our understanding of the development of modern and contemporary art.

Purpose for the Marcel Duchamp Research Portal

The Duchamp Research Portal unites a number of museum collections and archival repositories related to the life and work of Marcel Duchamp. Making up for the geographic distances between the participating institutions, this online resource digitally aggregates Duchamp-related archival materials along with his artworks and renders them accessible, discoverable, and usable for the Duchamp research community, scholars, and the broader public in a way that has never been possible before.

Scope of contents

The portal is divided into two sections: Documents and Museum Collections. The two sections of the site reflect the partnering institutions’ administration of the materials. Documents feature items maintained by library and archives departments as well as the Association Marcel Duchamp, while Museum Collections include objects in the partners’ permanent artwork collections.

The portal currently consists of nearly 50,000 images of digitized archival documents and related metadata. The materials include correspondence, drawings, technical plans, photographs, exhibition ephemera, newspaper clippings, scholarly articles, and more. These archival resources offer users throughout the world a unique window into Duchamp’s life and artistic production.

Please note that the portal does not represent complete and exhaustive access to all Duchamp materials held at the three participating institutions. Decisions about materials included in the portal were made during a survey phase of the project in 2015–17. Materials may have been excluded for reasons including but not limited to presence of sensitive or confidential information, lack of metadata, or the absence of digital surrogates. In addition, alike materials may exist in several collections so there will also be duplicates within the portal.

Partnering Institutions

Philadelphia Museum of Art

The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) has been the premier center for the exhibition and study of Marcel Duchamp’s work since 1950, when Walter and Louise Arensberg donated their collection of more than 1,000 art objects, including the largest assembly of works by Duchamp, to the museum. Today the museum holds more than 200 works of art by the artist, along with personal papers, photographs, and preparatory materials compiled by his estate. The museum’s curatorial records, administrative files, and manuscript collections provide complementary information and additional context for understanding Duchamp’s life, work, and relationship to the museum.

As of January 2022, the PMA has partnered in this project with two other institutions holding significant collections of Duchamp-related resources and materials: the Association Marcel Duchamp and Centre Georges Pompidou, specifically the Musée national d’art moderne and Bibliothèque Kandinsky.

Association Marcel Duchamp

The Association Marcel Duchamp (AMD) is a nonprofit organization that was formed in 1997 by Jacqueline Matisse-Monnier (1931-2021), stepdaughter of the artist and legatee of his estate.

It continues efforts initiated by Marcel Duchamp's wife Alexina "Teeny" Sattler (1906–1995), who ensured the respect of the artist's memory and secured the protection and presentation of his artworks and archives in major public collections—starting with those at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in the United States and the Musée national d’art moderne in France.

Based in Paris, the AMD manages the artist’s estate and preserves an open collection originating from the family —including personal papers and correspondence, notes and sketches, photographs, ephemera and scrapbooks, as well as books and documentation related to Marcel Duchamp.

Centre Georges Pompidou

The Marcel Duchamp collection of the Musée national d’art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, holds a comprehensive group of works that retraces the artist’s entire career, built up through both acquisitions and the generosity of the family. It includes major works, such as paintings, the autograph notes for The Green Box, and several readymades, as well as the molds from the late 1950s. The Centre Pompidou also houses an important collection of photographs by Man Ray with prints and negatives relating to Duchamp and his family. On a documentary level, Duchamp is represented in the Bibliothèque Kandinsky collection by the artist’s periodical covers, documentation on his exhibitions, archives, and letters he wrote by hand to André Breton, Francis Picabia, Constantin Brancusi, and others.

Image Rights and Requests

The Duchamp Research Portal includes certain works which are not in the public domain, may be subject to the copyright laws (or other applicable laws) of the United States, France, or other nations, or may bear certain restrictions on their respective use (“protected works”). Requests to reproduce protected works must be submitted in writing to the respective intellectual property rights holder as specified below. If you are uncertain about which works are protected works or where to submit your request for reproduction regarding a specific protected work, please contact archives@philamuseum.org. Unauthorized use of works on the Duchamp Research Portal is expressly prohibited.

PMA does not warrant that use of the works and content displayed in this Portal will not infringe the rights of third parties. Please note that users are responsible for determining whether their use is fair and compliant with applicable copyright laws. PMA shall not be responsible for and disclaims any and all liability for loss, liability, damage of any kind, injury, or expense of any nature which may be claimed against or suffered by any user or any third party directly or indirectly arising from their access to and use of this Portal and its contents.

Reproduction of Marcel Duchamp’s literary works

All requests for use of Marcel Duchamp’s literary works must be addressed to the AMD: associationmarcelduchamp@gmail.com.

Reproduction of Marcel Duchamp’s visual works

For users located outside the United States, the reproduction and public communication rights of Marcel Duchamp’s visual works are managed by ADAGP, France, on behalf of the AMD. Requests for use of Marcel Duchamp’s visual works must be addressed to ADAGP:

ADAGP – Société des auteurs dans les arts graphiques et plastiques
11 rue Duguay-Trouin
75006 Paris, France
Tel: +33(0)1.43.59.09.79
www.adagp.fr

For users located in the United States, requests for commercial use of Marcel Duchamp’s visual works must be addressed to ADAGP’s sister society in the United States, Artists Rights Society (ARS):

ARS
65 Bleecker Street, 12th floor
New York, NY 10012
United States
Tel: +1 (212) 420-9160
arsny.com

Reproduction of works by Jacques Villon, Suzanne Duchamp, and Jean Crotti

All requests for use of Jacques Villon’s, Suzanne Duchamp’s, and Jean Crotti’s visual and literary works must also be addressed to the ADAGP, France. For users located in the United States, requests must be addressed to ARS. Please see contact information above for ADAGP and ARS.

Documentation

To access the Portal’s full data set and other documentation, please visit our GitHub repository.

Project Support

The Duchamp Research Portal was made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Democracy demands wisdom, with additional contributions from the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, Martha Hamilton Morris and I. Wistar Morris III, The Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation, The Women’s Committee of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and other generous donors.

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this resource do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

 

Project Teams

 

Philadelphia Museum of Art

Association Marcel Duchamp

Centre Pompidou

Consultants

Thank You

For their invaluable collaboration on the project, the Philadelphia Museum of Art would like to thank: Guy-da Bru, Desa Burton, Michael Cahill, Rose Chiango, Conna Clark, Nicole Horita, William B. Peterson, Genevieve Richardson, Al Suh, and Anthony Tran.

For their invaluable collaboration on the project, the Centre Pompidou would like to thank: Jean-Philippe Bonilli, Anne Delebarre, Gilles Duffau, Claire Galibert, Adriana Getler, Bruno Gonthier, Céline Heytens, Doïna Lemny, Anne Lemonnier, Camille Morando, Paul Mourey, Lauriane Nehlig, Yekhan Pinarligil, Perrine Renaud, Léo Rivaud Chevaillier, Olivia Schmitt, Sunita Vaz, and Brigitte Vincens.

The Association Marcel Duchamp would like to thank as well: Lou Guerin, Margot Zimmerman, Xavier Martinez, and Patrick Jullien, Président de l’Association Duchamp-Villon-Crotti.

Contact Us

For more information or questions about the Duchamp Research Portal, please contact: archives@philamuseum.org

Privacy and Cookie Notice

This Portal is administered by the Philadelphia Museum of Art (“PMA”). PMA uses cookies to provide and improve services on this Portal. By accessing this Portal, you agree to be bound by PMA’s Terms of Use and Cookie Policy. If you do not agree, do not access this Portal.