Joseph Beuys and Marcel Duchamp Multiples from the Chaplick collection
Beuys c’est la vie

October 16 – November 22, 2003

Andrew Roth is pleased to present a selection of multiples by Marcel Duchamp and Joseph Beuys from the collection of the Canadian collector Morey Chaplick.  On view will be over forty key works including Duchamp’s Boite en Valise (1966) and the deluxe Green Box (1934); and Beuys’s Felt Suit (1970) and Sled (1969)

Marcel Duchamp and Joseph Beuys face each other across the 20th century: self-created myths assiduously crafted from well-placed rumours, carefully selected images and beautiful multiples in a variety of forms. Duchamp, the archangel of anti-art, disdaining labor, merely “assisted” his ready-mades into a condition of enigma; Beuys, guru of green, survived through the secret forces of nature, which he embodied in felt, in fat, in the corrosive acid of the lemon. Both had imaginative support from dealers, who assisted in the assembling of the legend by bold and intelligent publications and objects.

Just as Marcel Duchamp was Marchand du Sal was also Rrose Selavy, blithely wandering across previously proscribed boundaries, so Beuys transformed himself from professor to politician to performing shaman. And each produced a wide and surprisingly sympathetic array of editioned sculptures and images to support the ongoing mystery, from parodic or punning labels to subverted pseudo-domestic articles; from portable collections — whether postcard or 3D miniature — to impossible objects. From Giaconda ass-warmer to surgical ass-kicker, Beuys, Selavy!

This is the second exhibition at Andrew Roth presenting works from the Chaplick collection, the first, “The Complete Run: Artist’s Book, Multiples and Ephemera,” was exhibited in November, 2002.