Acknowledgments

Henderson, Linda Dalrymple

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Acknowledgments

Linda Dalrymple Henderson

Duchamp in Context: Science and Technology in the Large Glass and Related Works

~Two individuals who were very important to this project did not live to see its final form: Alexina Duchamp, the widow of Marcel Duchamp, and my father, Donald Dalrymple. Mme Duchamp offered gracious support and encouragement throughout my endeavor, and her expression of pleasure at the final manuscript of the text was a source of great satisfaction for...

Author

Linda Dalrymple Henderson

PublisherPrinceton University Press

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-22453

Acknowledgments

Two individuals who were very important to this project did not live to see its final form: Alexina Duchamp, the widow of Marcel Duchamp, and my father, Donald Dalrymple. Mme Duchamp offered gracious support and encouragement throughout my endeavor, and her expression of pleasure at the final manuscript of the text was a source of great satisfaction for me. Her children, Jacqueline Matisse Monnier and Paul Matisse, have likewise been very helpful. It was my father’s collection of physics textbooks from his days as an electrical engineering student in the 1920s that first opened the door for me to turn-of-the-century science. Growing up with an inventor’s laboratory in the basement perhaps conditioned me to undertake a study of Duchamp and science and technology. Whatever the case, my father’s advice was crucial to this venture at a number of junctures.

The research and writing of this book was an eight-year odyssey, and I have been fortunate to have a number of traveling companions on my adventure. I could not have accomplished this task without the generous assistance of two scholars, Bruce Hunt and Francis Naumann. A specialist in Victorian physics at the University of Texas, Bruce Hunt was an ever-ready consultant as Duchamp successively led me from one field of science to another; he also read each chapter as it was written, providing much-appreciated advice. Francis Naumann’s knowledge of the details of Duchamp’s life and career and his unfailing generosity in sharing resources is legendary among Duchamp scholars. I was the beneficiary of that expertise and goodwill, along with his careful reading of the manuscript. The artist and author Tony Robbin also read chapters as they were written and offered vital encouragement as the book developed.

I owe a special debt to Robert Herbert, who first brought together the realms of art and science for me when I was a graduate student at Yale and whose scholarship continues to be a touchstone for my own. A number of other scholars have also contributed to this book in one way or another. I am grateful for the assistance of Craig Adcock, Mark Antliff, Willard Bohn, Ecke Bonk, William Camfield, Jacques Caumont, Jean Clair, Anne d’Harnoncourt, Charlotte Douglas, Gladys Fabre, Jennifer Gough-Cooper, George Heard Hamilton, Richard Hamilton, Archie Henderson, David Hopkins, Charles Hunt, Douglas Kahn, Barbara Larson, Pat Leighten, Rose-Carol Washton Long, Herbert Molderings, Molly Nesbit, Hector Obalk, Robert Palter, Krisztina Passuth, the late Daniel Robbins, Margit Rowell, Naomi Sawelson-Gorse, Arturo Schwarz, Hélène Seckel, Jean Suquet, Athena Tacha, Calvin Tomkins, and M. E. Warlick. In addition, my work has benefited greatly from interchanges with my colleagues in the Society for Literature and Science, Donald Benson, John Greenway, Sidney Perkowitz, Martin Rosenberg, Stephen Weininger, and especially Bruce Clarke.

My colleagues and friends at the University of Texas at Austin also helped me in a variety of ways. They include John Clarke, the late Charles Edwards, Peter Jelavich, Bren-da Preyer, Ann Reynolds, and Jeffrey Chipps Smith, as well as Gwen Barton, Susan Bill, Foster Foreman, Sigrid Knudsen, Michael Larvey, Emma-Stina Prescott, Nancy Schuller, Christopher Schiff, and Paul Willard. In particular, I wish to thank Richard Shiff, whose imprint on my own thinking is visible in a number of places in this book. Most numerous among my fellow travelers on this project were my graduate students at the University of Texas, many of whom participated in the Duchamp seminars I have taught in recent years. Together we came to see Duchamp in new ways, and I am most appreciative of their stimulation and companionship. Those students or former students who made specific contributions to the project, working as research assistants or helping in other ways, include John Cantú, Janis Bergman-Carton, David Cole, Anne Collins, Charles Cramer, Maria Di Pasquale, James Housefield, Sherry Jacks, Nancy Keeler, Jill Morena, Andrew Otwell, Stephen Petersen, Stephen Pinson, Wendy Salmond, Debra Schafter, Jan Schall, and David Schele, whose computer expertise was essential. Graphic design student Jana C. Wilson produced the line drawing in figure 82.

I began research for this book in 1988–89, during which time I held a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship and a Faculty Research Assignment at the University of Texas. Several Special Research Grants from the university subsequently supported the acquisition of photographs for the book, and funding from the Jacks Travel Fund in the Department of Art and Art History assisted with travel near the end of the project. Additional support for publication came in the form of grants from the Graham Foundation and from the Eugene McDermott Foundation as well as a University Cooperative Society Subvention Grant awarded by the University of Texas. The libraries at the University of Texas facilitated my work at every stage; I am indebted to staff members at the Inter-Library Service of the Perry-Castañeda Library, the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, the Collections Deposit Library, and the Fine Arts Library, whose librarians, Janine Henri and Laura Schwartz, were particularly helpful.

Many museums and collections supplied photographs for this volume, the majority coming from the Philadelphia Museum of Art. At Philadelphia, members of the curatorial staff, particularly Michael Taylor, Ann Temkin, and Marge Kline, provided crucial assistance, and the Rights and Reproductions staff over several years, Beth Rhoads, Conna Clark, Caroline Armacost, and Kathleen Ryan, always stood ready to help me. The staff of the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers in Paris and the Deutsches Museum in Munich also offered valuable aid. Among collectors and dealers, Robert Shapazian and Guy Ladrière were especially generous in sharing information and photographs. At Princeton University Press, Elizabeth Powers served as Fine Arts Editor during the years the manuscript was in preparation; Elizabeth Johnson shepherded the book through the initial stages of production under the new editorship of Patricia Fidler. In addition to Ms. Johnson and Ms. Fidler, I owe debts to former Fine Arts Editor Eric Van Tassel, who initiated the idea, to Ms. Powers, who waited patiently as the book developed, to my excellent copy editor, Karen Gangel, and to the press’s current production editor, Curtis Scott. Kathleen Friello worked with me to design the index, which she then skillfully created.

Most of all, my gratitude goes to my family for their incredible forbearance during this long endeavor. From a distance, my sisters, Ann Baird, Mary Putnam, and Nancy Sutton, each contributed special gifts to this work. It was primarily my husband and children, however, who felt the impact of this eight-year project and provided the support that enabled me to complete it. The dedication of this text to George, Andrew, and Elizabeth is but a small sign of my appreciation.

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