The artwork titled “Marcel Duchamp” was created by the artist Richard Hamilton in 1968, as an emblematic piece within the Pop Art movement. This portrait, by characterization, amalgamates commercial culture with fine arts sensibilities, as is characteristic of the broader movement to which it belongs.
The artwork is a complex, layered composition that captures Richard Hamilton’s interest in blending different visual elements. It features a figure, presumably Marcel Duchamp, part of which appears as a photographic reproduction, overlaid with graphic and illustrative elements. The central figure is depicted holding a transparent pane overlaid with geometric shapes and lines that simulate a playful take on the mustache and goatee, with a halo-like circle above the head.
Reminiscent of Duchamp’s own work with readymades and his exploration of identity and perception, Hamilton’s portrait stages an interplay between visual representation and the conceptual underpinnings of identity. The combination of photographic realism with abstract graphic elements exemplifies the Pop Art movement’s embrace of commercial techniques, while simultaneously engaging in a dialogue with the historical legacy of Duchamp’s Dadaism and conceptual art.