"The Blind Man" edited by Marcel Duchamp, Henri Pierre-Roché, and Beatrice Wood (Ugly Duckling Presse)

 

THE BLIND MAN

Edited by Marcel Duchamp, Pierre-Roché, Beatrice Wood.  

Introduction by Sophie Seita & Translation by Elizabeth Zuba

Ugly Duckling Presse, ISBN: 9781937027889

What surprises me the most is thinking that this publication is very much like a zine one can find at the Printed Matter Book/Zine Festival. It's quirky, passionate, and absolutely modern. Marcel Duchamp and his pal Henri Pierre-Roché arrive in New York City and meet the artist Beatrice Wood. The mighty trio produced The Blind Man as a support for the first exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists exhibition put together by Duchamp, Man Ray, Katherine Dreier, and others. 

Interestingly, the editors/publishers were visual artists, except for Pierre-Roché, who was an art collector, curator, and novelist who, late in life, wrote "Jules and Jim." Some hinted that the novel is based on a relationship between the three editors, or it could have been another threesome. Still, the bohemian lifestyle produced this magnificent publication that only lasted for three issues. Like all good things, there is a beginning, and then… life goes on. One of The Blind Man's notable aspects is the first mention of Duchamp's classic avant-garde work, "The Fountain," which was sent to the art festival was turned down because it was dirty (urinal) and mass-produced made by a commercial company. R. Mutt, the artist (Duchamp), claimed it's a work of art because he says so! The first of the famous ready-mades by the genius artist. 

The Blind Man's beautiful concept is that anyone can contribute an article or even have art by children. Anarchy as an art publication. Among some of the others, Mina Loy, a fascinating figure in the early American Avant-Garde world, being an artist, writer, poet, and a significant presence in the bohemian art world, has a major hand in The Blind Man. There's poetry, a manifesto for the publication, and then a somewhat rave art review for Maret Oppenheim. 

The beauty of The Blind Man and other artist orientated magazines/journals is that a small community produced works that have a lasting and profound presence in our contemporary times. The Internet killed the importance of a hard copy journal. Still, it can't replace the beauty of holding, seeing, and reading a publication. The slight production mistakes of the original production of this publication are more of charm than distress. The people at Ugly Duckling Presse did a remarkable job producing a box-set of this small but big as an inspiration for the scene then and even now.