Marcel Duchamp sent a telegram in 1947 congratulating Kiesler for the New York show

A Telegram from Marcel Duchamp

David Prowler

History

Readymade Press

The Cubies' ABC was published in the aftermath of the celebrated Armory Show of 1913, the largest and most sensational exhibition of modern art held in the United States.  Designed to appear as little more than a children's ABC book-where three pyramidal-shape characters take readers on a tour of the modern works included in the exhibition-the actual purpose of The Cubies' ABC was to introduce the newest manifestations of contemporary art to the public in a satirical and humorous fashion.  Thus the letter "A" is for "Art, Archipenko and Anatomics," "B" is for "Braque and "Beauty as Brancusi views it," "C" is for "Color Cubistic ad libitum," and "D" is for "Duchamp, the Deep-Dyed Deceiver," whose Nude Descending a Staircase is rendered in the illustration as an accordion in need of repair.  The rhyming text was written by Mary Mills Lyall, and the drawings are by her husband, Earl Harvey Lyall (an architect who had studied at Amherst College, Columbia University and, for a brief period, in Paris).  When The Cubies' ABC appeared in 1913, The Dial declared it "the oddest little color book of the season," telling readers that "the book must be seen and read to be appreciated."  It is here reprinted in a near-exact facsimile of the original publication, accompanied by an introduction (inserted hors text) by Francis M. Naumann.

The Cubies' ABC

Arts & Photography

Mary Mills Lyall

History & Criticism

Francis M. Naumann has been writing about the art and ideas of Marcel Duchamp for nearly forty years. The present compilation of thirty-three essays consists of articles he has published in various scholarly catalogues and journals, although they have been extensively revised and expanded for inclusion in this publication. A number of new essays were written specially for this volume (several of which were based on lectures that he has delivered on the artist over the years). The book is designed to address not only the major works produced by Marcel Duchamp-from the Nude Descending a Staircase (1912) and Large Glass (1915-23), to the Etant donnés (1946-66)-but to engage readers with the major themes that occur with some consistency in a lifetime of work: chess, optics, humor, eroticism, anarchy, replication, money and art, etc.

The Recurrent: Essays on the Art, Life and Legacy of Marcel Duchamp

Francis M. Naumann

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