Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Impossible: The Love Affair Between Marcel Duchamp and Maria Martins, and the Artwork It Inspired

Impossible: The Love Affair Between Marcel Duchamp and Maria Martins, and the Artwork It Inspired

Naumann, Francis M.

Hardcover

Art HistoryArtistsIndividual Artists

Publisher Price: $30.00

ISBN10: 0789215292
ISBN13: 9780789215291
Publisher: Abbeville Press
Published: Mar 31 2026
Pages: 192
Weight: 1.05
Height: 0.90 Width: 5.60 Depth: 8.60
Language: English
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. Some of the greatest of Martins's Surrealist sculptures were inspired by her relationship 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.

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