the amazing life of Marcel Duchamp

This entry about a stamp.  Its a very large stamp, so it needs a large postcard.

Its part of the USPS sheet "Modern Art in America", but Duchamp was French born and he made this painting in France.  And it became famous in America when it was shown in NYC, where Americans called it "Explosion in a Shingle Factory" and a magazine offered a ten dollar reward for anyone who could "find the lady."   But its now at the Philadelphia Art Museum, so it is allowed on the stamp.

Personally, I think this picture is a condensation of another painting from 30 years before, "The Golden Stairs".

Duchamp himself has a biography with details that are difficult to believe.  He seems to have stopped painting a few years after this in order to play chess in Argentina.  Yes!  He became a "chess journalist"!  Samuel Beckett wrote about Duchamp in the 1957 play "Endgame".  Duchamp moved to Greenwich Village in 1942 and gained American citizenship in 1955.

 

http://www.philamuseum.org/collections/permanent/51449.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Golden_Stairs

and by the way, that single stamp is offered today on eBay for $2.37 ( +$1.17 shipping expense!)

Wallace Nutting

A hundred years ago, and almost like postcards, Wallace Nutting sold TEN MILLION photographs!  He started taking pictures as a hobby during bicycle trips and worked it into a good business.  He was the Thomas Kincaid of his time.  This colorized photo shows a young woman polishing a silver tray in a nice New England home, and it literally promoted the American craze to revive the COLONIAL STYLE. This postcard comes from theWethersfield CT Silas-Deane museum.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wallace_Nutting
http://www.wallacenutting.com/

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Why is it important to keep writing letters?

The Guardian Newspapers covered a literature performance devoted to letters and asked this question of Stephen Fry.

Writing letters, remotely from a distance, is a truth;

that is why literature is so important; 

that is why letters are the foundation of literature and

a Man of Letters is a literate person... or Woman of Letters!

http://www.theguardian.com/books/video/2014/may/12/stephen-fry-the-letter-that-saved-my-life-letters-live-video

Build Your Own... CHRYSLER BUILDING

It might be fun to build such a model, but the postcard itself is definitely too small for actual building.  It makes more sense to scan the card at 600dpi and print it section by section to legal-size paper and assemble that instead.

The website itself is very well made, with expanded instructions and other building choices.  It makes sense to start easy with CLEOPATRA'S NEEDLE !

http://www.buildyourownnewyork.com

        

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