Fred Rafael Rednor wrote:
>
> Yesterday, I was at the National Ggallery of Art (in D.C.) to
> see the DaDa exhibition. The exhibition is interesting, even
> if you don't care much for the style.
>
> But one piece that might be of interest to members of the CR
> list was Marcel Duchamp's "Bicycle Wheel." This is not the
> 1913 original, but a third version he put together in 1951.
> Normally, it resides in the Museum Of Modern Art in NYC:
> http://www.moma.org/
>
> Anyway, the fork used in this piece if just lovely. The fork
> has a fair amount of rake, which comes from a lovely curve near
> the end of the blades. The fork crown is really lovely - think
> it's a Nexvex piece.
>
> In fact, I wondered if the fork was chosen for its aesthetic
> properties, of if it simply was whatever was available at the
> time? (By the way, the wheel uses a nice aluminum alloy hub
> and a steel Rigida rim.)
> Cheers,
> Fred Rednor - Arlington, Virginia (USA)
This is really weird Fred... I'm actually wearing a t-shirt that I made with that image on it. Most people (actually all people) that see it think it is some kind of wheeltrueing stand!!! I thought everyone studied Dada and Duchamp's Readymades in school, but I guess not.
I don't think the items for Readymades are selected for their aesthetics necessarily... more a matter of what is handy. I've seen one version with a straight bladed fork (like Ernesto "invented")!
Chuck Schmidt South Pasadena, Southern California
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