Marcel Duchamp and John Cage

Publication date: 1968

Topics: chess, duchamp, cage, canada, music, art

Collection: opensource

Language: English

Marcel Duchamp and John Cage is an art book by Shigeko Kubota and published by Takeyoshi Miyazawa in 1968. The book is a photographic documentation of a chess match played between the artist Marcel Duchamp and composer John Cage at Ryerson University in Toronto entitled "Reunion."

The book also features text by John Cage titled 36 Acrostics re and not re Duchamp, with the instruction "A given letter capitalized does not occur among the letters between it and the preceding capitalized letter." The book was printed in an edition of 500.

The match also produced aleatoric music by triggering a series of photoelectric cells underneath the chessboard when the players moved the pieces. The game works as an indeterminate structure: as a game of chess is played, the moves of the players on the board activate four compositions and distribute them to eight speakers surrounding the audience.

Reunion was Duchamp’s last public appearance; he died October 2nd, 1968 of heart failure at the age of 81.