From the MOMA site: Although Duchamp had collected manufactured objects in his studio in Paris, it was not until he came to New York that he identified them as a category of art, giving the English name “Readymade” to any object purchased “as a sculpture already made.” When he modified these objects, for example by mounting a bicycle wheel on a kitchen stool, he called them “Assisted Readymades.” Duchamp later recalled that the original Bicycle Wheel was created as a “distraction”: “I enjoyed looking at it, just as I enjoy looking at the flames dancing in a fireplace.”
Bicycle Wheel by Marcel Duchamp, 1951
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Having played with a replica of Duchamp’s Bicycle Wheel I can confirm that the shadows that it casts as it turns are very attractive, the perfect bicycle optical art.
A small correction Duchamp first made Bicycle Wheel in 1913, but left it behind in Paris (probably thrown out), a second 1916 version was also lost, so the version in MoMa’s photo is the third version made in 1951. As they are editions of the same sculpture it should be given the earliest date; “1913 (3rd version 1951)”
Great blog – I’ve been enjoying all the bicycle art articles.
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