Marcel Duchamp is one of my favorite artists, not only as a pivotal force in the history of art, but also as a thinker. "Etant donnes", considered one of his most important and final work of art, is one of my favorite images. I love this image because it is hauntingly beautiful and sublime (Kant's theory of the Sublime and the Beautiful applies to this piece). As an image, it's beyond definition, surpassing the mere description of what the eye is allowed to see. It generates a certain tension between story and plot by invoking a kind of narrative while at the same time omitting history all together. It also deals with sexuality from a morbid perspective, since the figure's genitalia, who seems to be female (she has breasts), is disfigured, or defiled, and even appears to be non-human, at once hinting at rape or murder or both. But that is not a viable attempt at any kind of description, since the figure is holding a gas lamp as though she is still alive. Is the figure relaxing or is she dying, having been tortured and left for dead? Since her face is not visible, her identity is denied, which means that she is a kind of representation of a representation: it could be any woman...
Aside from the aesthetic implications of this image, there is the emotional side one encounters. I could look at if forever, trying to decipher Duchamp's intentions, but at the same time i feel like he was laughing at us when he was making it. Another way i experience this image is by thinking about the fact that he did not make art for over 25 years, even though he worked on it in secret. that is fascinating to think about, and adds a philosophical dimension or layer to the piece. From the moment i saw this image, it never left my mind. i think that it never will. I always think about it in terms of art making practices, as an indexical image, and as a sublime work of art.
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