Three Standard Stoppages
Duchamp, Marcel
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Alternative Titles
Trois stoppages étalon
3 Standard Stoppages
Date
1913-1914Description
Assemblage, found on chance.
Three pieces of thread, each 100 cm long, dropped from a height of one meter onto canvas (painted Prussian blue) and glued in place. Canvas cut into 3 strips, each 120 x 13.3 cm, glued to glass panels. Printed in gold letters on three black leather labels, each 5.3 x 8.2 cm, glued to one end of each canvas strip.
Three wood slats, shaped along one edge to match the curves taken by the threads.
The whole is fitted into a wood box.
Duchamp regarded chance as a means ‘to combat logical reality’. This work was made by dropping three threads, each a meter long, from a height equal to their length, then cutting wooden rulers to record the shape in which each had fallen. Duchamp described these as ''a preserved metre, preserved chance''. He later used the templates in The Bride Stripped Bare by her Bachelors, Even (The Large Glass) to draw the capillary tubes which collect the gas escaping from the nine Bachelors'' heads and convey it to the sieves. full view
Type of Work
Assemblage (Sculpture)Subject
Thread, Boxes (Containers), Dada, Chance, Measurement
Rights
Rights Statement
Licensed for educational and research use by the MIT community only
Item is Part of
124102