Oil, Wood and Straw Mixed Media Signed N. Schultz After Marcel Duchamp

Description

This reproduction of Duchamp's "Nude Descending a Staircase" by artist N. Schultz is intriguing due to the depth of the … more This reproduction of Duchamp's "Nude Descending a Staircase" by artist N. Schultz is intriguing due to the depth of the required study and the various stages of refinement that preceded its creation. This is a work using a variety of media. Appearing as a painting, it is almost a sculpture, using pieces of straw and thin wood grouped together and then painted.

Studying the painting, beyond the immense amount of research that must have gone into it, reveals another captivating aspect: the subject itself. It is one of Marcel Duchamp's most emblematic works, embodying elements of two crucial movements in the history of art. This was best expressed by Duchamp himself in 1912 when he declared: "I felt more Cubist than Futurist in this abstraction of a nude descending a staircase: the general aspect and the brownish chromatism of the painting are Cubist, even if the treatment of the movement has some Futurist overtones."

The nude has always served as a coded representation meeting precise criteria. However, in this context, it is not posed statically but represents almost repeated movements like an open fan, and in relief, thus departing from the classical code of the nude where everything is immediate and requires no keys to interpret the scene. The main silhouette can be seen on the right-hand edge of the figure. And on the left, a multiplication of the same figure descending the staircase. It's extraordinary that the artist has succeeded in imitating this painting, creating a field of observation that rises into a third dimension. Duchamp said of his initial painting: "As it is, in severe wood colors, the anatomical nude does not exist, or at least, cannot be seen, because I have completely renounced the naturalistic aspect of a nude, retaining only this twenty or so different static positions in the successive act of descending." In the light zone, different or repeated geometric shapes, from lighter to darker, appear, along with lines that symbolize movement. It is then that the silhouette of a woman in motion emerges. In the darker area, a staircase can be discerned, descending deep into a cellar. This painting is inspired by the codes of cubist representation but deviates slightly from them. It incorporates compositions, shapes, and a desire to highlight geometries and forms, presenting simultaneous aspects of a figure moving through space. What's unexpected is the presence of this dynamism, in contrast to the cubist advocacy of static forms. The inclination to capture movement reflects Futurism and marks one of Duchamp's first breaks with modern aesthetics.

Poorly received at its first exhibition, this iconic painting went on to become a key work in the history of modern art.
N. Schultz, the artist who created the work was a great admirer of Duchamp. less