“The Bride Stripped Bare by her Bachelors,” created by Marcel Duchamp between 1915 and 1923 in the United States, is an exemplification of the Dada art movement, distinguished by its use of unconventional mediums including oil, varnish, and glass. This figurative artwork, belonging to the genre of Dada, confronts traditional aesthetic norms and resides at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.
The artwork is large-scale and consists of two panels, entitled the Bride’s Domain and the Bachelors’ Apparatus. The upper section, the Bride’s Domain, is relatively sparse, with an ethereal, almost mechanical figure of the “Bride,” crafted from transparent and opaque elements that are both linear and diagrammatic in comparison to the dense, more machination-like assembly of the Bachelors below. The Bachelors’ Apparatus, on the lower panel, is a complex network of shapes and mechanical objects that seem to oscillate between representation and pure abstraction.
What makes this artwork significant is not only the innovative use of materials such as glass, but also the way Duchamp embedded a narrative that can be read through the intricate mechanisms and the seemingly dynamic interplay between the Bride and the Bachelors. Despite its figuration, the work defies easy interpretation due to its abstract composition and the enigmatic relationship between its components. Indeed, this enigmatic quality is a fundamental characteristic of Duchamp’s oeuvre, which often compels viewers to question the nature of art and perception. The panels are marked by a network of cracks, the result of an accident during transportation, which Duchamp ultimately embraced as a fortuitous addition to the work’s complex narrative.
