Search - Marcel Duchamp (Artists of the 20th Century) on DVD

A little DaDa and lot of BlaBla

David Footerman | Rockford, IL USA | 10/01/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"With its short biographical introduction, followed by a long spoken catalog of "bla bla", this piece is typical of the "Artists of the 20th Century" series. Though quick, easy, cheap and commercially viable to make, they provide precious little inspiration to young artists looking for where to hang their stylistic hats. Even so, the art speaks for itself and is inspiring and the camera work is reasonable.

The audio and video feeds are badly enough out of phase that the producers ought to contemplate a financial sacrifice, perish the thought, and release a corrected version. Come on guys!"

Poor documentary

Dewitt Cheng | San Francisco CA | 06/18/2010

(2 out of 5 stars)

"I bought this hoping for a good intro to Duchamp for an art history class, and it's very, very, very disappointing. Little content beyond the names of the works (OUT OF SYNCH, YET!) intoned above generic background music. No interviews, no intellectual content. I bought another Artists of the 20th Century DVD on Picasso at the same time, and it is only marginally better. I don;t know that they are all hastily and poorly made, but buyer, beware.

AFAIK, no good doc on Duchamp exists. What's up with that, art world?"