"The Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors, Even"
He's back, it's......Reverend Bingo!
Hi all,
Nice to be back in this relatively cross-post free newsgroup again.
Have to say that I love the album, and Undertow is just the most
brilliant song, and live it was a religious experience. Anyhow, and sorry
if this has already come up here, but can anyone explain the line "The
Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors, Even" that is printed at the bottom
of the production credits, just after Marcel Duchamp (why is that in
italics BTW?)
Cheers
Mark, The Reverend Bingo
rast...@mail.utexas.edu
The Reverend Bingo wrote:
>
> . . . Anyhow, and sorry
> if this has already come up here, but can anyone explain the line "The
> Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors, Even" that is printed at the bottom
> of the production credits, just after Marcel Duchamp (why is that in
> italics BTW?)
>
Somebody *did* ask before, but I'm happy to answer again!
"The Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors, Even" is the name of a painting by
the Dada artist, Marcel Duchamp. It's listed on the album because there's a
photograph of it on the CD insert: if you fold the insert out, its on the side
with the legal credits you mentioned, on the end and left of the photo of the
two blurry trees (it looks like a window with light shining through).
The painting is done on a large (9 by 5 foot) piece of cracked glass, and also
incorporates lead wire, foil, dust, and varnish in addition to the oil paint.
He painted on glass to suggest a four-dimensional space, as well as to make the
room seen through the glass part of the composition. The complex and surreal
mechanical imagery of the painting grew out of Duchamp's fascination with
science and machinery. Duchamp created the work between 1915 and 1923, and it's
now on exhibit in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The painting's title is
typical Dada wordplay, and also suggests several puns (of which Duchamp was
fond) in the original French.
Duchamp is most famous for his earlier Futurist painting, "Nude Descending A
Staircase," and for his "ready-mades," which were common ordinary objects which
Duchamp displayed in art galleries and called 'art.' In the 1930's, Duchamp
retired from art and spent the rest of his life playing very strange games of
chess (though he kept working in secret).
Incidentally, Duchamp believed that each viewer of an artwork gives it their
own personal meaning, which is more real than the artist's intended meaning, or
as he put it, "the audience makes the pictures." This sounds similar to Stipe's
comments that the lyrics people hear on the albums are more 'correct' than the
ones he is singing, which is why he's reluctant to explain songs. Duchamp was
also interested in the role of chance operations in art, which is similar to
Stipe's interest in Walker Percy's idea (and essay) "Mistake As Metaphor."
There's a Marcel Duchamp website, for more info, at:
http://www.val.net/~tim/duchamp-aug96.html
Always ready to talk Art,
rm
(rast...@mail.utexas.edu)
"The children look up, all they hear is/Sky blue bells ringin'..." - R.E.M.
Lanz, Sara Ann
Another one to add to the NAIH-F FAQ . . . agreed?
-SA
Russell McGonagle
The Bride Stripped Bare... is a piece of art by Duchamp (dadaist,
surrealist) that is in the photo with the black background and the
whitish cross like shape, the "Bachelors" are silouetted within the
cross shape.
russell
>Hi all,
> Nice to be back in this relatively cross-post free newsgroup again.
>Have to say that I love the album, and Undertow is just the most
>brilliant song, and live it was a religious experience. Anyhow, and sorry
>if this has already come up here, but can anyone explain the line "The
>Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors, Even" that is printed at the bottom
>of the production credits, just after Marcel Duchamp (why is that in
>italics BTW?)
>Cheers
>Mark, The Reverend Bingo
halima t
rast...@mail.utexas.edu writes:
(snip..)
>Incidentally, Duchamp believed that each viewer of an artwork gives it their
>own personal meaning, which is more real than the artist's intended meaning, or
>as he put it, "the audience makes the pictures." This sounds similar to Stipe's
>comments that the lyrics people hear on the albums are more 'correct' than the
>ones he is singing, which is why he's reluctant to explain songs. Duchamp was
>also interested in the role of chance operations in art, which is similar to
>Stipe's interest in Walker Percy's idea (and essay) "Mistake As Metaphor."
mentioned reading? Percy is way, way up on my favorite author list. Has
M.S. mentioned any works of Percy's fiction that he has read? Of course
Duchamp and Percy would ultimately find themselves at severe odds
philosophically, so I'm curious what crossover Percy's essay and Duchamp's
thinking has.
thanks,
halima
Big Waldo
>The Bride Stripped Bare... is a piece of art by Duchamp (dadaist,
>surrealist) that is in the photo with the black background and the
>whitish cross like shape, the "Bachelors" are silouetted within the
>cross shape.
I think it's at the Philly Museum of Art. I know there's a whole Duchamp room
there, and on eof them is this giant piece of cracked glass with unintelligible
figure that I think is it.
Big Waldo