In 1913 Marcel Duchamp's Nude Descending a
Staircase exploded through the American art world.Â
This is the story of how he followed the painting to New York two
years later, enchanted the Arensberg salon, and—almost
incidentally—changed art forever. In 1915, a group of
French artists fled war-torn Europe for New York.  In
the few months between their arrival—and America’s entry into
the war in April 1917—they pushed back the boundaries of the
possible, in both life and art.  The vortex of this
transformation was the apartment at 33 West 67th Street, owned by
Walter and Louise Arensberg, where artists and poets met nightly to
talk, eat, drink, discuss each others’ work, play chess, plan
balls, organise magazines and exhibitions, and fall in and out of
love.  At the center of all this activity stood
the mysterious figure of Marcel Duchamp, always approachable,
always unreadable.  His exhibit of a urinal, which he
called Fountain, briefly shocked the New York art world before
falling, like its perpetrator, into obscurity. Many people
(of both sexes) were in love with Duchamp. Henri-Pierre Roché and
Beatrice Wood were among them; they were also, briefly, and (for
her) life-changingly, in love with each other.  Both
kept daily diaries, which give an intimate picture of the events of
those years.  Or rather two pictures—for the views
they offer, including of their own love affair, are stunningly
divergent.  Spellbound by Marcel follows Duchamp,
Roché, and Beatrice as they traverse the twentieth century. Roché
became the author of Jules and Jim, made into a classic film by
François Truffaut.  Beatrice became a celebrated
ceramicist. Duchamp fell into chess-playing obscurity until,
decades later, he became famous for a second time—as Fountain was
elected the twentieth century’s most influential artwork.Â
'Breezily entertaining...There's a fabulous cast of supporting
characters on this busy stage' - The Spectator 'A delicious and
deeply researched portrait of its time' - New York Times 'Part
drama, part page-turning history, this paints the complexities of
art and love in a seductive light' - Publishers Weekly
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