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Marcel Duchamp, Fresh Widow, original 1920, fabricated 1964, painted wood, glass, black leather, paper, and transparent tape, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Deborah and Ed Shein

Fresh Widow, Duchamp

Fresh Widow is one of Duchamp’s “readymades”—commonplace objects that the artist signed and then exhibited as art. Working with a dealer in 1964, Duchamp oversaw the production of eight reproductions of his original Fresh Widow, of which this is the second. The title is a pun on the phrase “French window,” which alludes to both the doors commonly found in Parisian apartments and the new generation of widows created by World War I.

09/30/16