Fashion is a subject that has long been marginalized in art history and in museums. And yet, one of the most well-known artists in the twentieth century - Marcel Duchamp - created works that challenge the notion that fashion does not belong in the museum. As well, there is material evidence of his engagement with clothing as part of his oeuvre. This book reveals that clothing and dressing are significant themes that recur in Duchamp's life and his work – including his drawings, his fashioning of his body, his readymades, and in his curatorial gestures.In examining the items of clothing worn by Duchamp and the related traces of his wardrobe management, Duchamp is unmasked as a dandy. His waistcoat readymade series Made to Measure (1957-1961) is in fact a remarkable and deliberate effort to recalibrate the definition of the readymade to include clothing. With this little-studied readymade series, Duchamp established a precedent for sartorial art as a valid form of artistic expression. In considering the material traces of Duchamp's fashioning of his body and identity in his work and life, this book makes a highly original contribution to the understanding of Duchamp's work as well as the significance of the clothed body in the vanguard of Modernism. Ultimately, this book explains the relevance of fashion in the museum to modern audiences today.
"A fascinating examination of Duchamp's self-fashioning and attention to the fashioned body throughout his career. Mida makes an important contribution to our understanding of the readymade and to the porous boundaries between fashion and art."
Dr. Justine de Young from the Fashion Institute of Technology
"Fresh and original, Mida brings astute intellectual insight into Marcel Duchamp's unexplored sartorial entanglements with dress and clothing. A must read, you will be elated and challenged and then saddened when you realize you have reached the end of the book."
Dr. Vicki Karaminas from Massey University in New Zealand
'Mida convincingly, and often surprisingly, reveals that Duchamp's dapper self-fashioning, a life-long performance that included his gender-defying personification of Rrose Selavy, was not the extent of his sartorial obsessions. ... Dressing & Undressing Duchamp provides a genuine contribution both to Duchampian studies, but more importantly to the centrality of clothing and fashion to conceptual art practice."
Dr. Jonathan Fraiers from University of Southampton
'Thanks to Ingrid E. Mida, we now have an exhaustive overview of fashion as artistic strategy, many of which have been overlooked by countless theorists of this ubiquitous modern artist [Duchamp]. Mida shows us that despite the crowdedness of the field of 'Duchamp Studies', a fashion book is overdue ... Led by appealing photographic evidence, the author takes us on an ambitious journey.'
Jeppe Ugelvig, Curator and Historian
"A fascinating examination of Duchamp's self-fashioning and attention to the fashioned body throughout his career. Mida makes an important contribution to our understanding of the readymade and to the porous boundaries between fashion and art."
Dr. Justine de Young from the Fashion Institute of Technology
"Fresh and original, Mida brings astute intellectual insight into Marcel Duchamp's unexplored sartorial entanglements with dress and clothing. A must read, you will be elated and challenged and then saddened when you realize you have reached the end of the book."
Dr. Vicki Karaminas from Massey University in New Zealand
'Mida convincingly, and often surprisingly, reveals that Duchamp's dapper self-fashioning, a life-long performance that included his gender-defying personification of Rrose Selavy, was not the extent of his sartorial obsessions. ... Dressing & Undressing Duchamp provides a genuine contribution both to Duchampian studies, but more importantly to the centrality of clothing and fashion to conceptual art practice."
Dr. Jonathan Fraiers from University of Southampton
'Thanks to Ingrid E. Mida, we now have an exhaustive overview of fashion as artistic strategy, many of which have been overlooked by countless theorists of this ubiquitous modern artist [Duchamp]. Mida shows us that despite the crowdedness of the field of 'Duchamp Studies', a fashion book is overdue ... Led by appealing photographic evidence, the author takes us on an ambitious journey.'
Jeppe Ugelvig, Curator and Historian
Dressing and Undressing Duchamp is also available from Amazon or can be ordered from your local bookstore.