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Marcel Duchamp: Étant donnés: 1. La chute d'eau, 2. Le gaz d'éclairage (Given: 1. The Waterfall, 2. The Illuminating Gas)

Extract from Bruce Hainley, Pep Talk 5:

PT: That makes me wonder what was your entry, growing up in your family, to art, museums, reading, good books and authors you still love or the beginning of all that? You've talked about Interview magazine before, but...

BH: Interview was crucial, and my parents were members of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. For a period of my life, I saw the Étant Donnés as much if not more than any other work of art. Once I discovered it, tucked away in its corner of the museum, I wanted to see it every time I visited the museum... I remember the first time I saw it I literally thought it was the most hilarious thing I'd ever seen. I still think it's got that shocking aspect: very rarely do you see in any kind of art context what is taken to be "pussy" so splayed and displayed. I just could not believe that that was in a museum...