« Une sorte de pédérastie artistique » : accouplement créatif chez Duchamp et Picabia

Abstract

Duchamp observed that one of the most notable aspects of the twentieth century is that artists come in pairs. He described “Picabia-Duchamp” as one of these strange matches which he went on to characterize as “a sort of artistic pederasty” based on their stimulating exchange of ideas. In this paper I will examine how this queer pairing or coupling of artists reflects Duchamp’s interpretation of the inter-subjective and game-like nature of artistic creation. Challenging the myth of the artist creator as unique origin of the work, he inscribes creativity in the space of an exchange whose erotic overtones alludes to the multiplication and dissemination of authorship in the creative act. I will demonstrate that this doubling of artistic identity implies the erosion of the conventional idea of the artist recasting artistic production as an appropriative, rather than original act. Moreover, I show that his queering of artistic identity implies a fundamental rejection of essentialism insofar as it implies not a change of identity but an aspiration to multiplicity.

Keywords

• appropriation
• artistic creation
• queering
• homosociality
• performativity of gender