When meeting with someone new, you very often do not have much to go on, especially if you've been set up on a blind date. It is therefore very important to be able to analyze all the little clues the person across the table may be giving, particularly the ones he or she may be giving out without knowing it.
I'm talking about body language.
There are many things a trained observer can tell from someone, even if that person is not saying a word. For example, looking at the eyes; is the person constantly looking towards the door, looking at someone else, or God forbid, looking at his or her watch? Is your date slightly shifted in his or her seat, i.e. not looking directly at you? If so, that may be an unconscious sign that he or she is ready to bolt, or at least would like to!
Unfortunately, all these signs may pass you by, especially if you are attracted to the other, or a little too animated and involved in what you are saying.
One thing you can not miss, however, is the crossed arms. If the object of your desires, sitting across the table from you has his or her arms crossed, this is a sign that you are on extremely shaky ground.
You had better start paying attention to what you are saying, and see what kind of reaction you get. It is possible to recover from the crossed arms in terms of a successful date, but it is very difficult.
Crossed arms denote that the person is closing in on himself, and has made the conscious or unconscious decision not to be receptive to what you are saying. That means that as far as your date is concerned, your jokes are not funny, your stories not endearing, and your conversation in general, boring.
One way to possible salvage something from this fiasco is to ask questions, and to make sure your date talks as much as possible. Everyone loves talking, and most of the time, people just love talking about themselves. So ask lots of questions and try to shift the conversation away from what caused the crossed arms in the first place.
Single and in her 20s, Penelope Phillips is a Dating Consultant. She is the Author of the "Tea For Two" Newsletter. For more Dating Advice, Tips & Recommendations, Visit Real Dating Review!
When will the next nuclear bomb be used?
Will a nuclear bomb ever be used again should be the question? If so when do you predict it to be used and by who?
And when it is used, will that be the end of sweet mankind?
Humanity is hell bent on self destruction so it is just a matter of time, so why not.
Vet-USAF
Tsar Bomba - Largest Nuclear Device Ever Tested (50MT)
When the Wright brothers realized their initial successful flight in the early 1900's, the entire world was altered. At last, it was proven that man could soar like the birds! That primary airplane wasn't perfect and the flight was not very long, but this was incredible! Ever since, millions of people have flown millions of miles around the globe.
Scale Model plane Making became a common hobby not long after the first real planes were built. Enthusiasts from all social classes, yound and old and income levels participated. Early scale model makers were fascinated with the Wright Bro's and had to be a part of it all.
In the beginning, there were no model plane model kits on the market and the complete model had to be made by hand. Though quite simple in design, these early models really had the ability to fly! As time when by, flying machine kits were developed for home hobbiest to assemble. The early kits were sparse and only included basic parts, but no power source. Most used twisted rubber strips and could only fly short amounts of time.
Steam power was another means used propel scale model flying machines. By using model scale, flash steam power plants, flights could be sustained for longer times and distances. This was a major advancement over way of powering models, but not nearly efficient enough to please the model builders of the time. Over time, electric engines were developed that were just the right size to be used in a scale model airplane. This amazing innovation rearranged everything for the model plane world.
There are truly two different types of scale model aeroplane that are available. One is the non-flying or display kind. These are for admiring only and are usually secured to a holding stand, or they may be suspended the ceiling. These model plane are most often created in a scale of 1:48, although a variety of scales are available.
Static models can be made quite easily and come in a number of ready to assemble, predecorated, simple designs. They are usually constructed of balsa wood, plastic, lightweight metals or even paper. The majority of these are imitations of actual airplane both military and civilian.
Some advanced model kits require the model maker to have more more complex. These model kits require the complete construction of the aircraft this includes painting the craft. Display aircraft models aren't provided with engines and really can't be fitted with one. They simply aren't meant to fly and are not made to be able to.
Flying scale model airplanes are substantially different from non-flight models. Quite often they have little resemblence to any real aeroplane, these models are created simply for flight, not to imitate any particular craft. Flying plane models are available in three classifications, free-flight, control line and RC. Of the three, remote control model plane are maybe the most used now.
Model aeroplane with the ability to take flight quite often borrow their form from vintage flying machines. They are usually constructed with a frame of lightweight balsa covered this is done with cloth, decorative paper or plastic film. At the same time other styles are made using sheets of lightweight balsa wood to create a stronger body. The models wings are sometimes a combination of wood and styrofoam, making it easier to construct larger airplane models.
Power Sources for model aeroplane come in a amazing myriad of sizes and styles these days. There are electric and gasoline motors and even miniature jet power engines available. The kind and style of motor is dependent on the size and weight of the model plane it will propel. The most common way to keep control of the motor on a model aircraft is with RC technology. The modeler can control the speed, how high the airplane flies and maneuver the model with with a simple flick of his finger.
A less used type of power for model airplane is the control line. The plane model is tethered to a wire that is controlled by the pilot. For most planes of this type, the flying distance is restricted only as long as the wire allows. However, the flight time is usually much longer than other styles of flight. The downside is that the model will only fly around in circles.
Some scale model makers today prefer to construct vintage, free-flight model planes. They require the model plane builder to know a bit more about the workings of flight than newer model kits, adding to the challenge. Much like the Wright brothers, these model builders have a need to put their aeronautic skills to the test. Each part is carefully crafted to exacting specifications or the aeroplane will be no more than a display model.
For More Information About How You Can Build Model Airplanes [http://airplanes.biblioflip.com], visit: http://biblioflip.com
How to build a scale model?
I have a project to build a scale model of a mall.
You need to plan a layout whether its a concept, fiction or a replica of a real mall.
The best scale to plan and build the mall in in is HO scale (1/87th scale). This size is ideal to show the extent of the mall in a limited amount of space. This also minimizes the amount of scratch-building of shop fronts, building sides; etc since model railway accessories also include buildings and you may utilize what is already available for your mall appearance
Additionally scale items like people, furniture, vehicles are readily available in model railway shops and these items will greatly enhance the look off your scale model
The 4th-generation jet fighter aircraft Mikoyan MiG-29 was designed and developed by the Mikoyan design bureau in the USSR as a replacement for the MiG-23 Flogger for the Soviet Airforce. The MiG-29 Fulcrum air superiority jet fighter has been developed during the 1970s and joined the Air Force of the Soviet Union from 1983 at the well-known Kubinka airbase near Moscow.
The Soviets were afraid about the US Fighter X program that lead to the F-15 fighter. Finally, the Soviets decided to develop two fighter designs to counter the American advantage: The PFI program (the smaller part of the program, about 1/3) resulted in the bigger and heavier Sukhoi Su-27 Flanker jet fighter, while the bigger part was the LPFI (Perspektivnyy Lyogkiy Frontovoy Istrebitel) that resulted in the Mikoyan MiG-29 Fulcrum. Both come from the same aerodynamic studies, and the similarities of the two concepts can easily be recognized. LPFI means "Advanced Lightweight Tactical Fighter" program. The LPFI could be described as Soviet version of the US- lightweight program that finally resulted in the General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon and the Boeing F-18 Hornet program, respectively. The Su-27 remained the counterpart of the F-15.
The MiG-29 was that good, that the west was quite afraid that it has not only lost the advantage, but was now behind the Soviet Union. Especially the aerodynamics seemed to be superior, a fact that has been supported after the newly developed MiG-29 performed at airshows in the west years later, showing the famous Pugachev Cobra, a maneuver unparalleled by western jet fighters.
Today, after the cold war finally ended without becoming hot, flying a mig is possible to civilians from the west, which was totally unthinkable two decades ago. Firstly, it became possible to fly migs at the Zhukovsky flight test center near the town of Ramenskoe. Ironically, this is exactly the place where the new model was first spotted by western reconnaissance satellites and therefore got the name Ram-L. The possibility to fly mig 29 became possible due to financial problems of the Russian Federation. In 2006, fly a mig 29 and other aircraft like mig 23 or also the mig 25 or su 27 became unavailable at Ramenskoe airbase. The reason why fly migs stopped is not fully transparent, it is expected that it came with the improved financial situation after soaring commodity prices.
The operator flyfighterjet.com had therefore to find another opportunity to fly migs, which it luckily founds in the Russian town of Nizhniy Novgorod. Flying mig 29 and other models became available again, although the available models are limited compared to the wider range of migs that where available at Zhukovsky airbase. Fly migs was limited to the mig 29 fulcrum and the mig 31 foxhound, an even faster and heavier military jet that was often used for edge of space passenger flights up to an altitude of 24km.
After 2009, however, the mig 29 became the only jet left for passenger jet fighter flights. Flying migs, flying the beast from the cold war today is surely one of the more exciting things. It is, to historians as well as to aviation specialists, still unbelievable.
About the Author
Marcus Poutiainen is an aviation journalist that grew up in Tyrjansaari, Mr. Poutiainen wrote about aviation-related topics several finish journals. Mr. Poutiainen have also written many articles on Mig 29 and mig flight.
Where can I buy Moskovskaya vodka in the Delaware Area?
Moskovskaya and their premium brand Moskovskaya Cristall - Made in Russia (old Soviet State Brand) - I've only found them for sale in Europe recently (specifically Germany). It's worth the flight, but I'd rather find it closer to home
I used to live in Delaware. You will probably have to go to Maryland, if you are close to Wilmington. Pennsylvania has State Stores.
If you have an old bottle, take it to your neighborhood liquor store (across the street from any neighborhood church) and see if they will stock it for you.
I did that with my favorite wine. They charged about $2 extra per bottle, but it was worth it for the convenience.
Another option is to check out the Vodka of the Month clubs. Delaware is an illegal state, but they find legal ways of shipping you alcohol.
1983 Soviet shootdown of flight KAL 007 - Rep. Larry McDonald presumed dead
Marcel Duchamp was born in Blainville-Crevon Seine-Maritime in the Haute-Normandie region of France, and grew up in a family that enjoyed cultural activities. The art of painter and engraver Emile Nicolle, his maternal grandfather, filled the house, and the family liked to play chess, read books, paint, and make music together.
Three Duchamp brothers, left to right: Marcel Duchamp, Jacques Villon, and Raymond Duchamp-Villon in the garden of Jacques Villon's studio in Puteaux, France, 1914, (Smithsonian Institution collections.)
Of Eugene and Lucie Duchamp's seven children, one died as an infant and four became successful artists. Marcel Duchamp was the brother of:
Jacques Villon (1875-1963), painter, printmaker
Raymond Duchamp-Villon (1876-1918), sculptor
Suzanne Duchamp-Crotti (1889-1963), painter.
As a child, with his two older brothers already away from home at school in Rouen, Duchamp was close to his sister Suzanne, who was a willing accomplice in games and activities conjured by his fertile imagination. At 10 years old, Duchamp followed in his brothers' footsteps when he left home and began schooling at the Lyce Corneille in Rouen. For the next 7 years, he was locked into an educational regime which focused on intellectual development. Though he was not an outstanding student, his best subject was mathematics and he won two mathematics prizes at the school. He also won a prize for drawing in 1903, and at his commencement in 1904 he won a coveted first prize, validating his recent decision to become an artist.
He learned academic drawing from a teacher who unsuccessfully attempted to protect his students from Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, and other avant-garde influences. However, Duchamp's true artistic mentor was his brother Jacques Villon, whose fluid and incisive style he sought to imitate. At 14, his first serious art attempts were drawings and watercolors depicting his sister Suzanne in various poses and activities. That summer he also painted landscapes in an Impressionist style using oils.
Early work
Duchamp's early art works align with Post-Impressionist styles. He experimented with classical techniques and subjects, as well as with Cubism and Fauvism. When he was later asked about what had influenced him at the time, Duchamp cited the work of Symbolist painter Odilon Redon, whose approach to art was not outwardly anti-academic, but quietly individual.
He studied art at the Acadmie Julian from 1904 to 1905, but preferred playing billiards to attending classes. During this time Duchamp drew and sold cartoons which reflected his ribald humor. Many of the drawings use visual and/or verbal puns. Such play with words and symbols engaged his imagination for the rest of his life.
In 1905 he began his compulsory military service, working for a printer in Rouen. There he learned typography and printing processes skills he would use in his later work.
Due to his eldest brother Jacques' membership in the prestigious Acadmie royale de peinture et de sculpture Duchamp's work was exhibited in the 1908 Salon d'Automne. The following year his work was featured in the Salon des Indpendants. Of Duchamp's pieces in the show, critic Guillaume Apollinaire--who was to become a friendriticized what he called "Duchamp's very ugly nudes." Duchamp also became lifelong friends with exuberant artist Francis Picabia after meeting him at the 1911 Salon d' Automne, and Picabia proceeded to introduce him to a lifestyle of fast cars and 'high' living.
In 1911, at Jacques' home in Puteaux, the brothers hosted a regular discussion group with other artists and writers including Picabia, Robert Delaunay, Fernand Lger, Roger de la Fresnaye, Albert Gleizes, Jean Metzinger, Juan Gris, and Alexander Archipenko. The group came to be known as the Puteaux Group, and the artists' work was dubbed Orphic cubism. Uninterested in the Cubists' seriousness or in their focus on visual matters, Duchamp did not join in discussions of Cubist theory, and gained a reputation of being shy. However, that same year he painted in a Cubist style, and added an impression of motion by using repetitive imagery.
During this period Duchamp's fascination with transition, change, movement and distance became manifest, and like many artists of the time, he was intrigued with the concept of depicting a "Fourth dimension" in art.
Works from this period included his first "machine" painting, Coffee Mill (Moulin caf) (1911), which he gave to his brother Raymond Duchamp-Villon. The Coffee Mill shows similarity to the "grinder" mechanism of the Large Glass he was to paint years later.
In his 1911 Portrait of Chess Players (Portrait de joueurs d'echecs) there is the Cubist overlapping frames and multiple perspectives of his two brothers playing chess, but to that Duchamp added elements conveying the unseen mental activity of the players. (Notably, "chec" is French for "failure".)
Marcel Duchamp. Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2 (1912). Oil on canvas. 57 7/8" x 35 1/8". Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Nude Descending a Staircase No.2
Main article: Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2
Duchamp's first work to provoke significant controversy was Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2 (Nu descendant un escalier n 2) (1912). The painting depicts the mechanistic motion of a nude, with superimposed facets, similar to motion pictures. It shows elements of both the fragmentation and synthesis of the Cubists, and the movement and dynamism of the Futurists.
He first submitted the piece to appear at the Cubist Salon des Indpendants, but jurist Albert Gleizes asked Duchamp's brothers to have him voluntarily withdraw the painting, or to paint over the title that he had painted on the work and rename it something else. Duchamp's brothers did approach him with Gleizes' request, but Duchamp quietly refused. Of the incident Duchamp later recalled, "I said nothing to my brothers. But I went immediately to the show and took my painting home in a taxi. It was really a turning point in my life, I can assure you. I saw that I would not be very much interested in groups after that."
He later submitted the painting to the 1913 "Armory Show" in New York City. The exhibition was officially named the International Exhibition of Modern Art, displayed works of American artists, and was also the first major exhibition of modern trends coming out of Paris. American show-goers, accustomed to realistic art, were scandalized, and the Nude was at the center of much of the controversy.
Leaving "retinal art" behind
At about this time, Duchamp read Max Stirner's philosophical tract, The Ego and Its Own, the study of which he considered another turning point in his artistic and intellectual development. He called it "...a remarkable book ... which advances no formal theories, but just keeps saying that the ego is always there in everything."
Duchamp also noted the stage adaptation of Raymond Roussel's 1910 novel, Impressions d'Afrique which featured plots that turned in on themselves, word play, surrealistic sets and humanoid machines. He credited the drama with having radically changed his approach to art, and having inspired him to begin the creation of his The Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors, Even, also known as The Large Glass.
While in Germany in 1912 he painted the last of his Cubist-like paintings and he started "Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors" image, and began making plans for The Large Glass scribbling short notes to himself, sometimes with hurried sketches. It would be over 10 years before this piece was completed. Little else is known about the two-month stay in Germany except that the friend he visited was intent on showing him the sights and the nightlife.
Later that year he travelled with Picabia, Apollinaire and Gabrielle Buffet-Picabia through the Jura mountains, an adventure that Buffet-Picabia described as one of their "forays of demoralization, which were also forays of witticism and clownery ... the disintegration of the concept of art." Duchamp's notes from the trip avoid logic and sense, and have a surrealistic, mythical connotation.
Duchamp painted few canvases after 1912, and in those he did, he attempted to remove "painterly" effects, and instead to use a technical drawing approach.
His broad interests led him to an exhibition of aviation technology during this period, after which Duchamp said to his friend Constantin Brancusi, "Painting is washed up. Who will ever do anything better than that propeller? Tell me, can you do that?" Brancusi later sculpted bird forms, which U.S. Customs officials mistook for aviation parts and for which they attempted to collect import duties.
During this decade Duchamp began working as a librarian in the Bibliotque Sainte-Genevive, where he earned a living wage and withdrew from painting circles into scholarly realms. He studied math and physics areas in which exciting new discoveries were taking place. The theoretical writings of Henri Poincar particularly intrigued and inspired Duchamp. Poincar postulated that the laws believed to govern matter were created solely by the minds that "understood" them and that no theory could be considered "true." "The things themselves are not what science can reach..., but only the relations between things. Outside of these relations there is no knowable reality", Poincar wrote in 1902.
Duchamp's own art-science experiments began during his tenure at the library. To make one of his favorite pieces, 3 Standard Stoppages (3 stoppages talon), he dropped three 1-meter lengths of thread onto prepared canvases, one at a time, from a height of 1 meter. The threads landed in three random undulating positions. He varnished them into place on the blue-black canvas strips and attached them to glass. He then cut three wood slats into the shapes of the curved strings, and put all the pieces into a croquet box. Three small leather signs with the title printed in gold were glued to each of the "stoppage" backgrounds. The piece appears to literally follow Poincar's School of the Thread, part of a book on classical mechanics.
Work on The Large Glass continued into 1913, with his invention of inventing a repertoire of forms. He made notes, sketches and painted studies, and even drew some of his ideas on the wall of his apartment.
In his studio he mounted a bicycle wheel upside down onto a stool, spinning it occasionally just to watch it. Later he denied that its creation was purposeful, though it has come to be known as the first of his "Readymades". "I enjoyed looking at it", he said. "Just as I enjoy looking at the flames dancing in the fireplace."
Meanwhile, Nude Descending a Staircase No. 2 scandalized Americans at the Armory Show, and the sale of all four of his paintings in the show financed his trip to America in 1915.
After World War I was declared in 1914, with his brothers and many friends in military service and himself exempted, Duchamp felt uncomfortable in Paris. He decided to emigrate to the then-neutral United States. To his surprise, he found he was a celebrity when he arrived in New York in 1915, where he quickly befriended art patron Katherine Dreier and artist Man Ray. Duchamp's circle included art patrons Louise and Walter Conrad Arensberg, actress and artist Beatrice Wood and Francis Picabia, as well as other avant-garde figures. Though he spoke little English, in the course of supporting himself by giving French lessons and through some library work, he quickly learned the language.
For two years the Arensbergs, who would remain his friends and patrons for 42 years, were the landlords of his studio. In lieu of rent, they agreed that his payment would be The Large Glass. An art gallery offered Duchamp $10,000 per year in exchange for all of his yearly production, but Duchamp declined the offer, preferring to work on The Large Glass.
Socit Anonyme
Duchamp created the Socit Anonyme in 1920, along with Katherine Dreier and Man Ray. This was the beginning of his life-long involvement in art dealing and collecting. The group collected modern art works, and arranged modern art exhibitions and lectures throughout the 1930s.
By this time Walter Pach, one of the coordinators of the 1913 Armory Show, sought Duchamp's advice on modern art. Beginning with Socit Anonyme, Dreier also depended on Duchamp's counsel in gathering her collection, as did Arensberg. Later Peggy Guggenheim, Museum of Modern Art directors Alfred Barr and James Johnson Sweeney consulted with Duchamp on their modern art collections and shows.
Dada
Fountain 1917
New York Dada had a less serious tone than that of European Dadaism, and was not a particularly organized venture. Duchamp's friend Picabia connected with the Dada group in Zrich, bringing to New York the Dadaist ideas of absurdity and "anti-art". A group met almost nightly at the Arensberg home, or caroused in Greenwich Village. Together with Man Ray, Duchamp contributed his ideas and humor to the New York activities, many of which ran concurrent with the development of his Readymades and The Large Glass. They also worked on the concept of "found art".
The most prominent example of Duchamp's association with Dada was his submission of Fountain, a urinal, to the Society of Independent Artists exhibit in 1917. Artworks in the Independent Artists shows were not selected by jury, and all pieces submitted were displayed. However, the show committee insisted that Fountain was not art, and rejected it from the show. This caused an uproar amongst the Dadaists, and led Duchamp to resign from the board of the Independent Artists.
Along with Henri-Pierre Roch and Beatrice Wood, Duchamp published a Dada magazine in New York, entitled The Blind Man, which included art, literature, humor and commentary.
When he returned to Paris after World War I, Duchamp did not participate in the Dada group.
Readymades
Bicycle Wheel by Marcel Duchamp (1913)
Main article: Readymades of Marcel Duchamp
"Readymades" were found objects which Duchamp chose and presented as art. The first such object was Bicycle Wheel, an inverted bicycle wheel mounted on a stool, which Duchamp assembled in 1913. However, he did not coin the term "readymade" until 1915.
It is necessary to arrive at selecting an object with the idea of not being impressed by this object on the basis of enjoyment of any order. However, it is difficult to select an object that absolutely does not interest you, not only on the day on which you select it, and which does not have any chance of becoming attractive or beautiful and which is neither pleasant to look at nor particularly ugly. (Marcel Duchamp)
Bottle Rack (1914), a bottle drying rack signed by Duchamp, is considered to be the first "pure" readymade. Prelude to a Broken Arm (1915), a snow shovel, also called In Advance of the Broken Arm, followed soon after. His Fountain, a urinal signed with the pseudonym "R. Mutt", shocked the art world in 1917. Fountain was selected in 2004 as "the most influential artwork of the 20th century" by 500 renowned artists and historians.
In 1919, Duchamp made a parody of the Mona Lisa by adorning a cheap reproduction of the painting with a mustache and goatee. To this he added the inscription L.H.O.O.Q., a phonetic game which, when read out loud in French quickly sounds like "Elle a chaud au cul". This can be translated as "She has a hot ass", implying that the woman in the painting is in a state of sexual excitement and availability. It may also have been intended as a Freudian joke, referring to Leonardo da Vinci's alleged homosexuality. Duchamp gave a "loose" translation of L.H.O.O.Q. as "there is fire down below" in a late interview with Arturo Schwarz.
According to Rhonda Roland Shearer, the apparent Mona Lisa reproduction is in fact a copy modeled partly on Duchamp's own face. Research published by Shearer also speculates that Duchamp himself may have created some of the objects which he claimed to have been "found".
The Large Glass
Main article: The Large Glass
The Large Glass (1915-23) Philadelphia Museum of Art Collection
Duchamp carefully created a masterpiece, The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even (The Large Glass), working on the piece from 1915 to 1923, with the exception of periods in Buenos Aires and Paris in 1918 - 1920. He executed the work on two panes of glass with materials such as lead foil, fuse wire, and dust. It combines chance procedures, plotted perspective studies, and laborious craftsmanship. His notes for the piece, published as The Green Box, reflect the creation of unique rules of physics, and a mythology which describes the work. He stated that his "hilarious picture" is intended to depict the erratic encounter between a bride and her nine bachelors.
Until 1969 when the Philadelphia Museum of Art revealed Duchamp's Etant donns tableau, The Large Glass was thought to have been his last major work.
Kinetic works
Duchamp's interest in kinetic works can be discerned as early as the notes for The Large Glass and the Bicycle Wheel readymade, and despite losing interest in "retinal art", he retained interest in visual phenomena.
In 1920, with help from Man Ray, Duchamp built a motorized sculpture, Rotative plaques verre, optique de prcision ("Rotary Glass Plates, Precision Optics"). The piece, which he did not consider to be art, involved a motor to spin pieces of rectangular glass on which were painted segments of a circle. When the apparatus spins, an optical illusion occurs, in which the segments appear to be closed concentric circles. (Animation of Rotary Glass Plates)
Man Ray set up equipment to photograph the initial experiment, but when they turned the machine on for the second time, a belt broke, and caught a piece of the glass, which after glancing off Man Ray's head, shattered into bits.
After moving back to Paris in 1923, at Andr Breton's urging and through the financing of Jacques Doucet, Duchamp built another optical device based on the first one - Rotative Demisphre, optique de prcision (Rotary Demisphere, Precision Optics). This time the optical element was a globe cut in half, with black concentric circles painted on it. When it spins, the circles appear to move backwards and forwards in space. Duchamp asked that Doucet not exhibit the apparatus as art.
Rotoreliefs were the next phase of Duchamp's spinning works. To make the optical "play toys" he painted designs on flat cardboard circles and spun them on a phonographic turntable. When spinning, the flat disks appeared three-dimensional. He had a printer produce 500 sets of six of the designs, and set up a booth at a 1935 Paris inventors' show to sell them. The venture was a financial disaster, but some optical scientists thought they might be of use in restoring three-dimensional stereoscopic sight to people who have lost vision one eye. (Animated display of the Rotoreliefs)
In collaboration with Man Ray and Marc Allgret, Duchamp filmed early versions of the Rotoreliefs and they named the film Anmic Cinma (1926).
Later, in Alexander Calder's studio in 1931, while looking at the sculptor's kinetic works, Duchamp suggested that these should be called"mobiles". Calder agreed to use this novel term in his upcoming show. To this day, sculptures of this type are called "mobiles".
Rrose Slavy
Rrose Slavy (Marcel Duchamp). 1921. Photograph by Man Ray. Art Direction by Marcel Duchamp. Silver print. 5-7/8" x 3"-7/8". Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Main article: Rrose Slavy
"Rrose Slavy", also spelled Rose Slavy, was one of Duchamp's pseudonyms. The name, a pun, sounds like the French phrase "Eros, c'est la vie", which may be translated as "Eros, such is life". It has also been read as "arroser la vie" ("to make a toast to life").
Slavy emerged in 1921 in a series of photographs by Man Ray showing Duchamp dressed as a woman. Through the 1920s Man Ray and Duchamp collaborated on more photos of Slavy. Duchamp later used the name as the byline on written material and signed several creations with it. These included at least one sculpture, Why Not Sneeze Rrose Slavy?. The sculpture, a type of readymade called an assemblage, consists of an oral thermometer, and several dozen small cubes of marble resembling sugar cubes inside a birdcage.
The inspiration for the name "Rrose Slavy" may have been Belle da Costa Greene, J.P. Morgan's librarian of the Pierpont Morgan Library. Following the death of J.P. Morgan, Sr., Greene became the Library's director, working there for a total of forty-three years. Empowered by the Morgans, she built the library collection, buying and selling rare manuscripts, books and art.[citation needed]
Transition from art to chess
In 1918 Duchamp made a hiatus from the New York art scene, interrupting his work on the Large Glass, and went to Buenos Aires, Argentina. He remained for nine months and often played chess. He even carved from wood his own chess set, with the assistance of a local craftsman who made the knights. He moved to Paris in 1919, and then back to the United States in 1920. Upon his return to Paris in 1923, Duchamp was, in essence, no longer a practicing artist. Instead, he played chess, which he studied for the rest of his life to the exclusion of most other activities.
Duchamp can be seen, very briefly, playing chess with Man Ray in the short film Entr'acte (1924) by Rene Clair. He designed the 1925 Poster for the Third French Chess Championship, and as a competitor in the event, finished at fifty percent (3-3, with two draws). Thus he earned the title of chess master. During this period his fascination with chess so distressed his first wife that she glued his pieces to the board. Duchamp continued to play in the French Championships and also in the Olympiads from 1928-1933, favoring hypermodern openings such as the Nimzo-Indian.
Sometime in the early 1930s, Duchamp reached the height of his ability, but realized that he had little chance of winning recognition in top-level chess. In following years, his participation in chess tournaments declined, but he discovered correspondence chess and became a chess journalist, writing weekly newspaper columns. While his contemporaries were achieving spectacular success in the art world by selling their works to high-society collectors, Duchamp observed "I am still a victim of chess. It has all the beauty of art - and much more. It cannot be commercialized. Chess is much purer than art in its social position." On another occasion, Duchamp elaborated, he chess pieces are the block alphabet which shapes thoughts; and these thoughts, although making a visual design on the chess-board, express their beauty abstractly, like a poem... I have come to the personal conclusion that while all artists are not chess players, all chess players are artists.
In 1932 Duchamp teamed with chess theorist Vitaly Halberstadt to publish L'opposition et cases conjugues sont rconcilies (Opposition and Sister Squares are Reconciled), known as corresponding squares. This treatise describes the Lasker-Reichhelm position, an extremely rare type of position that can arise in the endgame. Using enneagram-like charts that fold upon themselves, the authors demonstrated that in this position, the most Black can hope for is a draw.
The theme of the "endgame" is important to an understanding of Duchamp's complex attitude towards his artistic career. Irish playwright Samuel Beckett was an associate of Duchamp, and used the theme as the narrative device for the 1957 play of the same name, "Endgame". In 1968, Duchamp played an artistically important chess match with avant-garde composer John Cage, at a concert entitled "Reunion". Music was produced by a series of photoelectric cells underneath the chessboard, triggered sporadically by normal game play.
On choosing a career in chess, Duchamp said: "If Bobby Fischer came to me for advice, I certainly would not discourage him - as if anyone could - but I would try to make it positively clear that he will never have any money from chess, live a monk-like existence and know more rejection than any artist ever has, struggling to be known and accepted." Duchamp left a legacy to chess in the form of an enigmatic endgame problem he composed in 1943. The problem was included in the announcement for Julian Lev's gallery exhibition "Through the Big End of the Opera Glass", printed on translucent paper with the faint inscription: "White to play and win." Grandmasters and endgame specialists have since grappled with the problem, with most concluding that there is no solution.
Artistic involvement and marriages
Although Duchamp was no longer considered to be an active artist, he continued to consult with artists, art dealers and collectors. From 1925 he often travelled between France and the United States, and made New York's Greenwich Village his home in 1942.
In June 1927, Duchamp married Lydie Sarazin-Lavassor, however, they divorced six months later. It was rumored that Duchamp had chosen a marriage of convenience, because Sarazin-Lavassor was the daughter of a wealthy automobile manufacturer. Early in January 1928, Duchamp said that he could no longer bear the responsibility and confinement of marriage, and soon thereafter they were divorced.
From the mid-1930s onwards, he collaborated with the Surrealists, however, he did not join the movement despite the coaxing of Andr Breton. From then until 1944, together with Max Ernst, Eugenio Granell and Breton, Duchamp edited the Surrealist periodical VVV, and also served as an advisory editor for the magazine View, which featured him in its March 1945 edition, thus introducing him to a broader American audience.
In 1954, he and Alexina "Teeny" Sattler married, and they remained together until his death. Duchamp became a United States citizen in 1955.
His influence on the art world remained behind the scenes until the late 1950s, when he was "discovered" by young artists such as Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns, who were eager to escape the dominance of Abstract Expressionism.
Interest in Duchamp was reignited in the 1960s, and he gained international public recognition. 1963 saw his first retrospective exhibition at the Pasadena Art Museum, and in 1966 the Tate Gallery hosted a large exhibit of his work. Other major institutions, including the Philadelphia Art Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, followed, with large showings of Duchamp's work. He was invited to lecture on art and to participate in formal discussions, as well as sitting for interviews with major publications.
As the last surviving member of the Duchamp family of artists, in 1967 Duchamp helped to organize an exhibition in Rouen, France, called "Les Duchamp: Jacques Villon, Raymond Duchamp-Villon, Marcel Duchamp, Suzanne Duchamp." Parts of this family exhibition were later shown again at the Muse National d'Art Moderne in Paris.
Exhibition design
Duchamp was the designer of the 1938 International Surrealist Exhibition, which was held at the Gallerie des Beaux-arts, Paris. The show featured more than 60 artists from different countries, including approximately 300 paintings, objects, collages, photographs and installations.
The surrealists wanted to create an exhibition which in itself would be a creative act, and called on Duchamp to do so. At the exhibition's entrance he placed Salvador Dal's Rainy Taxi This work consisted of a taxicab rigged to produce a drizzle of water down the inside of the windows, a shark-headed creature in the driver's seat, and a blond mannequin crawling with live snails in the back. In this way Duchamp greeted entering patrons, who were in full evening dress.
Surrealist Street filled one side of the lobby with mannequins dressed by various surrealists. The main hall was a simulation of a dark subterranean cave with 1,200 coal bags suspended from the ceiling. Illumination was provided only by a single light bulb, so patrons were given flashlights with which to view the art.
An installation by Wolfgang Paalen was composed of oak leaves and a water-filled pond with water lilies and reeds, and the aroma of roasting coffee filled the air. Around midnight, the visitors witnessed the dancing shimmer of a sparsely dressed girl who suddenly arose from the reeds, jumped on a bed, shrieked hysterically, then disappeared just as quickly. Much to the surrealists' satisfaction the exhibition scandalized the viewers.
In 1942, for the First Papers of Surrealism show in New York, surrealists again called on Duchamp to design the exhibition. This time he wove a three-dimensional web of string throughout the rooms of the space, in some cases making it almost impossible to see the works. Duchamp made a secret arrangement with an associate's son to bring young friends to the opening of the show. When the finely dressed patrons arrived, they found a dozen children in athletic clothes kicking and passing balls, and skipping rope. Duchamp's design of the catalog for the show included "found", rather than posed, photographs of the artists.
Etant donns, 1946-1966, mixed media, Philadelphia Museum of Art. This was posthumously and permanently installed in the museum in 1969
Etant donns
Main article: Etant donns
Duchamp's final major art work surprised the art world that believed he had given up art for chess 25 years earlier. Entitled Etant donns: 1 la chute d'eau / 2 le gaz d'clairage ("Given: 1. The Waterfall, 2. The Illuminating Gas"), it is a tableau, visible only through a peep hole in a wooden door. A nude woman can be seen lying on her back with her face hidden, legs spread, and one hand holding a gas lamp in the air against a landscape backdrop. Duchamp had worked secretly on the piece from 1946 to 1966 in his Greenwich Village studio while even his closest friends thought he had abandoned art.
Death and burial
Marcel Duchamp died on October 2, 1968 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, and is buried in the Rouen Cemetery, in Rouen, France. His grave bears the epitaph, "D'ailleurs, c'est toujours les autres qui meurent;" or "Besides, it's always other people who die."
Legacy
A quotation erroneously attributed to Duchamp suggests a negative attitude toward later trends in 20th-century art:
This Neo-Dada, which they call New Realism, Pop Art, Assemblage, etc., is an easy way out, and lives on what Dada did. When I discovered the ready-mades I sought to discourage aesthetics. In Neo-Dada they have taken my readymades and found aesthetic beauty in them, I threw the bottle-rack and the urinal into their faces as a challenge and now they admire them for their aesthetic beauty.
However, this was actually written in 1961 by fellow Dadaist Hans Richter, in the second person, i.e. "You threw the bottle-rack...". Although a marginal note in the letter suggests that Duchamp generally approved of the statement, Richter did not make the distinction clear until many years later.
Duchamp's attitude was actually more favorable, as evidenced by another statement made in 1964:
Pop Art is a return to "conceptual" painting, virtually abandoned, except by the Surrealists, since Courbet, in favour of retinal painting... If you take a Campbell soup can and repeat it 50 times, you are not interested in the retinal image. What interests you is the concept that wants to put 50 Campbell soup cans on a canvas.
The Prix Marcel Duchamp (Marcel Duchamp Prize), established in 2000, is an annual award given to a young artist by the Centre Georges Pompidou. In 2004, as a testimony to the legacy of Duchamp's work to the art world, his Fountain was voted "most influential artwork of the 20th century" by a panel of prominent artists and art historians.
See also
Anti-art
Armory Show
History of painting
Western painting
Shock art
Selected works
Portrait of Chess Players (Portrait de joueurs d'echecs) (1911). Philadelphia Museum of Art
Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2 (Nu descendant un Escalier. No. 2) (1912). Philadelphia Museum of Art
Readymades of Marcel Duchamp (1915- )
Fountain (1917)
L.H.O.O.Q. (1919)
The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even (La Marie mis nu par ses clibataires, mme). Often called The Large Glass. (1915-1923). Philadelphia Museum of Art
The Green Box. Notes and studies for The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even. (1915-1923) Philadelphia Museum of Art
Rrose Slavy (1921- ) Duchamp's female "alter-ego" who signed some works and was photographed by Man Ray.
Rotoreliefs (1920s) External link
Obligation Monte Carlo (1924) Also called Monte Carlo Bond. First done as a lithograph and collage in 1924 and again as a lithograph in 1938 for the Paris art revue XXe Siecle. External link
Anmic Cinma Film (1926) UbuWeb
Given: 1 The Waterfall, 2. The Illuminating Gas. (French: Etant donns: 1. la chute d'eau/2. le gaz d'clairage. Translation note: "Etant donns" translates from French to English as "Being given", with emphasis on the existent 'Being' however the work is known in English as Given: 1 The....) (1946-1966) Philadelphia Museum of Art (outside view) (inside view)
Quotes
"Unless a picture shocks,it is nothing."
"Chess can be described as the movement of pieces eating one another."
"I am interested in ideas, not merely in visual products. "
"I am still a victim of chess. It has all the beauty of art - and much more. It cannot be commercialized. Chess is much purer than art in its social position."
"I don't believe in art. I believe in artists."
"I have forced myself to contradict myself in order to avoid conforming to my own taste."
"Living is more a question of what one spends than what one makes."
"The individual, man as a man, man as a brain, if you like, interests me more than what he makes, because I've noticed that most artists only repeat themselves."
Notes
^ Tomkins: Duchamp: A Biography.
^ Marcel Duchamp, from Session on the Creative Act, Convention of the American Federation of Arts, Houston, Texas, April 1957.
^ Tomkins: Duchamp: A Biography, pages 181-186.
^ "Duchamp's urinal tops art survey", BBC news 1 December 2004.
^ Marting, Marco De (2003). "Mona Lisa: Who is Hidden Behind the Woman with the Mustache?". Art Science Research Laboratory. http://www.artscienceresearchlab.org/articles/panorama.htm. Retrieved 27 April 2008.
^ Tomkins: Duchamp: A Biography, pages 227-228.
^ Tomkins: Duchamp: A Biography, pages 254-255.
^ Tomkins: Duchamp: A Biography, pages 301-303.
^ Tomkins: Duchamp: A Biography, pages 294.
^ "Becoming Duchamp" by Sylvre Lotringer
^ Brady, Frank: Bobby Fischer: profile of a prodigy, Courier Dover Publications, 1989; p. 207.
^ Hulten, Pontus. Marcel Duchamp, Work and Life: Ephemerides on and about Marcel Duchamp and Rrose Selavy, 1887-1968. Pages 8-9 June (1927) to 25 January (1928). ISBN 0-262-08225-X.
^ "(Ab)Using Marcel Duchamp: The Concept of the Readymade in Post-War and Contemporary American Art" by Thomas Girst at toutfait.com, Issue 5 2003)
References
Tomkins, Calvin: Duchamp: A Biography, Henry Holt and Company, Inc., 1996. ISBN 0-8050-5789-7
Seigel, Jerrold: The Private Worlds of Marcel Duchamp, University of California Press, 1995. ISBN 0-520-20038-1
Hulten, Pontus (editor): Marcel Duchamp: Work and Life, The MIT Press, 1993. ISBN 0-262-08225-X
Yves Arman: Marcel Duchamp plays and wins, Marcel Duchamp joue et gagne, Marval Press, 1984
Cabanne, Pierre: Dialogs with Marcel Duchamp, Da Capo Press, Inc., 1979 (1969 in French), ISBN 0-306-80303-8
Duchamp Bottles Belle Greene: Just Desserts For His Canning by Bonnie Jean Garner (with text boxes by Stephen Jay Gould)
Gibson, Michael: Duchamp-Dada, (in French, Nouvelles Editions Franaises-Casterman, 1990) International Art Book Award of the Vasari Prize in 1991.
Sanouillet, Michel and Peterson, Elner, The Writings of Marcel Duchamp. NY: Da Capo Press, 1989. ISBN 0-306-80341-0
Catherine Perret Marcel Duchamp, le manieur de gravit, Ed. CNDP, Paris, 1998
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Marcel Duchamp
Duchamp works
Philadelphia Museum of Art houses the Arensbergs' large collection of Duchamp's work. (website)
The Israel Museum has many of Duchamp's works in its Vera and Arturo Schwarz Collection of Dada and Surrealist Art. (website)
The Museum of Modern Art has many Duchamp works. (website)
An explanation about the "Roue de bicyclette" by Duchamp (website)
Dossier : Marcel Duchamp, Centre Pompidou
Essays by Duchamp
Marcel Duchamp: The Creative Act (1957) Text Audio
General resources
Andrew Stafford: Making Sense of Marcel Duchamp - animated explanations.
Marcel-Duchamp.com tant donn - annual review published by L'association pour l'etude de Marcel Duchamp.
Toutfait: The Marcel Duchamp Studies Online Journal
MarcelDuchamp.org - Personal website dedicated to Duchamp.
MarcelDuchamp.net - Art Science Research Laboratory site about researching Duchamp.
Marcel Duchamp - Olga's Gallery pages with biography and images.
Marcel Duchamp Rotoreliefs - animated.
Marcel Duchamp (DADA Companion) - the Online Research Companion.
Inventing Marcel Duchamp: The Dynamics of Poraiture - online exhibition from the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution.
Marcel Duchamp: Cooler Than Warhol - A great multimedia presentation about Duchamp's history and work.
profile at ChessGames.com
Essays about Duchamp
Marc Dcimo: Marcel Duchamp mis nu. A propos du processus cratif (Marcel Duchamp Stripped Bare. Apropos of the creative Act), Les presses du rel, Dijon (France), 2004.
Marc Dcimo:The Marcel Duchamp Library, perhaps (La Bibliothque de Marcel Duchamp, peut-tre), Les presses du rel, Dijon (France), 2001.
Lydie Fischer Sarazin-Levassor, A Marriage in Check. The Heart of the Bride Stripped by her Bachelor, even, Les presses du rel, Dijon (France), 2007.
Rhonda Roland Shearer: Marcel Duchamp's Impossible Bed and Other "Not" Readymade Objects: A Possible Route of Influence From Art To Science
Michael Beyer: Duchamp is Dandy!
Hilton Kramer: "Duchamp & his legacy", The New Criterion
Morgan Meis: "Peep show" Marcel Duchamp's ant donns.", The Smart Set
Audio and video
Voices of Dada, Futurism & Dada Reviewed and Surrealism Reviewed - readings by Duchamp on the audio CDs
UbuWeb - Music, lectures, and film
Duchamp's Legacy with Richard Hamilton and Sarat Maharaj from Tate Britain. (RealPlayer required.)
Audio of Marcel Duchamp's Some texts from "A l'infinitif" (1912-20). Recorded by Aspen Magazine (4:00) published on the Tellus Audio Cassette Magazine @ Ubuweb
Persondata
NAME
Duchamp, Marcel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
Duchamp, Henri-Robert-Marcel
SHORT DESCRIPTION
Painting, Sculpture, Film
DATE OF BIRTH
1887-7-28
PLACE OF BIRTH
Blainville-Crevon, France
DATE OF DEATH
1968-10-2
PLACE OF DEATH
Neuilly-sur-Seine, France
Categories: 1887 births | 1968 deaths | People from Seine-Maritime | American artists | Conceptual artists | Dada | Surrealist artists | French experimental filmmakers | French mixed-media artists | French painters | French sculptors | Modern artists | Naturalized citizens of the United States | French immigrants to the United States | Artists from New York | Pataphysicians | French chess players | 20th-century French writers | French chess writers | People from Greenwich Village, New YorkHidden categories: All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements from August 2007 About the Author
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Joe Mauer sets deadline for contract extension talks. Your thoughts? Details inside->?
Mauer sets a deadline for extension talks
If the Minnesota Twins want to lock up Joe Mauer(notes) to a contract extension, they’re going to have to do it before the 2010 season begins.
Mauer plans on ending contract negotiations if a deal isn’t struck by the end of spring training, a source close to the American League Most Valuable Player told Yahoo! Sports on Monday. Mauer would play out the season, then enter free agency primed to land perhaps the second-biggest bonanza in baseball history.
While the Twins hope to reach a deal before that happens – the Star Tribune reported they’d like to have one done by Christmas – formal negotiations between the sides have yet to begin, according to the source.
Twins general manager Bill Smith and Mauer’s agent, Ron Shapiro, declined to comment.
First off, I have to disagree with what "D" is talking about up there. It seems to me, since I see how Mauer reacts to the media here a lot, Joe is NOT a person who enjoys the limelight. I've always gotten the impression that he is uncomfortable about him being alone in the spotlight. For example, when he won the MVP, he kept talking about how it was nice, but it was more about his team helping him. He's also not a guy who goes out and parties all night to been seen in the spotlight, like a lot of players do. In fact, he was the one who got Justin Morneau to stop doing that.
I think the Twins realize how important Joe is to the team and keeping our fans happy. They are going to be willing to offer a lot more money than they normally do to keep him here in Minnesota. I also think that Joe will be willing to take a smaller amount of money to stay here. He loves being around all of his family, his hometown friends and fans, and driving up to our little town to go to his log cabin... As long as the Twins can prove to him that they are focused on winning NOW, I don't see Joe leaving....
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