41 Victor Obsatz. Marcel Duchamp 3/53.

Ediert von Moeller Fine Art. – Auf der Webseite der Galerie zur Bedeutung und Entstehung des schönen Doppelporträts: In March 1953 Michael Freilich, owner of the Roko Gallery in Greenwich Village, asked twenty-eight year-old Victor Obsatz (1925—2019) to photograph Marcel Duchamp in his apartment at 210 West 14th Street. A double exposure occurred by chance, creating an overlay of Duchamp’s playful smile and iconic profile. The resulting image pleased Duchamp very much, as he chose it for both the front and back cover of Robert Lebel’s 1959 catalogue raisonné. || Until 1999 the authorship of this portrait was unknown, with some scholars arguing that Victor Obsatz was in fact a pseudonym for Duchamp himself. The work has since become one of the most well-known and sought-after images of the artist, and has been reproduced in many texts on Duchamp, Dada, and Surrealism, including the National Portrait Gallery’s 2009 exhibition catalogue ›Inventing Marcel Duchamp: The Dynamics of Portraiture.‹« – Makellos.