Told in full for the first time, the true story of two artists whose affair transformed the trajectory of the modern art world.

Join us for a conversation with Francis Naumann to celebrate his new book, the first about the love affair between Brazilian sculptor Maria Martins and artist and inventor Marcel Duchamp. He will be in conversation with Molly Nesbit, followed by a signing.

PLEASE NOTE: RSVPs are encouraged but not required. Seating is limited and will be first come, first served. Doors open at 5:30 pm.

Can’t attend? Order your signed copy (please specify in the comments box at checkout that you would like it signed).

“Tell me who your enemies are, so that I can help you to hate them.” This was a favorite line of the Brazilian sculptor Maria Martins (1894-1973), and likely how she greeted Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968) at their first meeting, at the opening of an exhibition of her work in 1943.

The clandestine love affair that burned between these two artists for the remainder of the decade was fueled not only by romantic passion but also by a deep appreciation of each other’s work. Her relationship inspired some of the greatest of Martin’s Surrealist sculptures with Duchamp, including Impossible, whose title perhaps refers to their situation. (Martins was married to the Brazilian ambassador to the United States.) And it was during their affair that Duchamp—widely believed to have “retired” from art—secretly began his astonishing final work, which would be revealed only after his death. This work, the sculptural tableau Étant donnés, was heavily influenced by Martins: it takes formal cues from her work, and it was she who modeled for the startlingly realistic nude at its center.

This surprising story—highly readable yet meticulously researched, and abundantly illustrated with artworks and archival images—will affirm the importance of Maria Martins’s tropically inflected Surrealism and challenge the perception of Duchamp as a purely cool and cerebral artist.

Francis M. Naumann is an art historian, curator, and former art dealer, specializing in Dada and Surrealism and, in particular, the work of Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray. He is the author of numerous books and exhibition catalogs, including New York Dada 1915–23 and Marcel Duchamp: The Art of Making Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. Naumann was the first to write about the importance of Duchamp and Martins’s love affair, more than thirty years ago.

Molly Nesbit is the Mary Conover Mellon Chair of Art History at Vassar College and a contributing editor of Artforum. Her books include Atget’s Seven Albums (Yale University Press, 1992) and Their Common Sense (Black Dog, 2000). The Pragmatism in the History of Art (Periscope, 2013) is the first volume of Pre-Occupations, a series collecting her essays; the second, Midnight: The Tempest Essays, was published in 2017 by Inventory Press. Together with Hans Ulrich Obrist and Rirkrit Tiravanija, she curated the succession of Utopia Stations, a collective book, exhibition, seminar, web, and street project.

Time: 6:00 pm EST

Free!

Registration