Curators’ art and the problem of method

Abstract

This is a review of the recent Russian translation of Thierry de Duve's Pictorial Nominalism: On Marcel Duchamp's Passage from Painting to the Readymade, with a particular focus on the method followed by the celebrated Belgian art historian in this book. This choice of perspective is dictated, on the one hand, by the originality of de Duve's approach which sets his work apart from everything else written on art in general or on Duchamp in particular, and, on the other hand, by the fact that the author himself fails to submit his own method to any consistent analysis. This review explores the nature and the advantages of the said method in detail. The chief metaphor around which the reviewer centres her interpretation is that of 'curators' art' with its main characteristic which consists in disjoining an object of art by forming a specific context, a space of utterance, instead of directly applying a set of existing concepts or theories. This makes it possible to maintain the autonomy of an object. Duchamp and other figures (first of all Siegmund Freud) are 'put' into a single 'space' where none of them can enjoy the right to exclusive possession. One is, therefore, entitled to speak about the propositions derived from that 'space' as, in a certain sense, objective. The way this method works is further shown by following one of the main lines of de Duve's study, i.e. the emergence of ready-made in Duchamp's art. The reviewer shows how de Duve, in the space he constructs between Freud and Duchamp, succeeds in finding the meanings that allow him to describe Duchamp's transition to ready-made, as well as the rise of new figures (František Kupka, Sonia Delaunay, Kazimir Malevich) which find their place in the same space. Taking apart the mechanism of their interaction with Duchamp brings de Duve to the desired result: the birth of ready-made.