Marcel Duchamp: Étant donnés

Etant donnes is probably one of my favorite art pieces by Duchamp, maybe even just my favorite piece by an artist in general.

When you walk into the Duchamp gallery at the PMA you see the Large Glass in the center of the room with readymades on the left hand side against the wall. In the corner, next to the readymades there is a dark little room that is roughly 10'x10'(this is an eye ball estimate). Walking into the room with a burlap floor, you see a wooden barn door; the closer you walk towards the door you realize that there are two peep holes. When to peer into the holes a scene of a nude woman holding a gas lantern while she is laying in a pile of leaves and tigs; no matter the angle you look into the holes you cannot see her face. She looks deathly. Her skin radiates coldness and death; the flesh in tinted with blues and grays.  The mannequin of the woman has long blonde hair, even the hair itself looks dead; the blonde hair appears to be dirty. Just like the figure, the hair has a hint of gray to it. The only liveliness to the woman is that she is holding a lantern. Behind her is a lovely forest scene. There is a moving waterfall, bright blue sky, and cool green trees.

Because the room you walk into is so dark, when you look into the peep holes and see the nude woman laying I feel like I am doing something very wrong. I am invading her privacy; she doesn't know that I am there but I know that she is there laying nude in distress. Not this visit to the museum, but usually people talk about how the woman looks murdered or raped. Even though the piece is completely beautiful, it has a grotesque nature to it. I think that grotesque feeling comes from the fact that the mannequin's skin is so cold. Her skin is gray not full of warmth like a living person would have. I think people claim that the woman has just been a victim to a horrific crime due to the strong narrative element to the piece. People want to know so badly why she is there, why is she gray, why is the rest of the scene so alive and she isn't; so they make up stories to cure the unsettling feelings that the piece generates.

This happened, maybe the second or third time I went to the PMA but I was slightly shocked. A woman, man, and a young girl who was maybe 3 or 4 walked into the room to view the Illuminating Gas. The man and woman looked through the peep holes and were completely fascinated by what they has saw and started talking about the woman laying in the sticks. The little girl wanted to gaze into the holes like her parents had. They would not let her. They claimed it was not for little girls to see. Maybe I'll be an awful parent but I didn't see anything wrong with letting the girl view the image. I also found it funny that there are many paintings at the museum of people being slaughtered and dead animals, but Duchamp's piece wasn't acceptable. I don't quite understand that.