Warhol Films Duchamp

When the Cordier and Eckstrom Gallery in New York held a retrospective of Marcel Duchamp's work in 1965, Andy Warhol arrived at the opening with his entourage, clad in jeans and leather jackets, to film this patron saint of Pop Art at one of his last public appearances. Nat Finkelstein, Warhol's unofficial in-house photographer at the time, was on hand to document the event. Here, the aging Duchamp is bathed in a ghostly glow, his face illuminated like a death mask, as bystanders watch or studiously ignore this historic face-off between a rising young superstar and the eminence grise of the artistic avant-garde. In the center of the frame, the dazzling white glare of a spotlight outshines both art-world luminaries, like a hypnotic vacuum at the core of the publicity machine.