Talking with Duchamp about Kandinski

Terry Kreiter    Sculpture

Talking with Duchamp about Kandinski

Marcel Duchamp   Photo: Kay Bell Reynal   (1952)

 

Wassily Kandinsky, c. 1913 or earlier

 

 

Here's how it came about:  In my studio I get surprise visits. This sculpture, "Boris Descending" is about a visit with Duchamp, and involves Kandinski. It's earliest seed was a postcard that my wife Diane sent me, on it was an illustration of a Kandinski print. Years later came the Duchamp visit which unconsciously influenced the composition of my sculpture. I must explain:  These visits are almost real.

Postcard from Diane:  Kandinski

Wax patterns

My idea was to re-create in wax the shapes in the Kandinski print and cast them in bronze without a preconceived plan for the composition, planning to wait until I saw them in bronze before composing the sculpture.

Bride, Marcel Duchamp, 1912 

Above: Bride, 1912

Oil on canvas,  89.5 x 55 cm

Philadelphia Museum of Art

Right after finishing "Boris Descending" I saw it in my studio through a window, and felt the relationship with the Duchamp composition. I didn't plan this sculpture to be an homage, and maybe I'm the only one that sees this relationship.  I'm lucky, Duchamp doesn't always pay visits these days.

Boris Descending

Artist: Terry Kreiter

Title: Boris Descending

Date: 2007

Dim: 12 x 6 x 12 inches

Medium: Cast and fabricated bronze

Supporting material: Drawings in artists sketchbook #21

Provenance: Cast by the artist in the artists studio foundry

Exhibited: Sculpturesite Gallery, San Francisco, CA

To see more Terry Kreiter sculpture from this series