SPELLBOUND BY MARCEL

The painter and sculptor as Svengali.

London-based cultural historian and novelist Brandon explores how and why a large group of sophisticated, talented people fell under the spell of the mysterious, enigmatic artist Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968), a “singular mix of wit, fun, nihilism, and…indifference.” The author shifts back and forth between Paris and America, making the cast of characters particularly helpful in keeping track of the players—artists, writers, collectors, musicians, journalists, husbands, wives, and lovers—and their sexual proclivities over some 15 years. Drawing on revealing letters, diaries, and memoirs, Brandon’s buoyant, meticulous story begins in 1913 with New York’s Armory Show of new European art, including Duchamp’s Nude Descending a Staircase. Walter and Mary Louise Arensberg, a wealthy couple, attended, and Walter, much impressed, decided to become a supporter of avant-garde art and the people who made it. Consequently, their New York City home became an influential salon. After Duchamp visited and became a close friend, their home transformed into an “international hot spot.” Duchamp enjoyed the attention of his new friends, the wealthy, married Louise Norton and actor and artist Beatrice Wood, a key player in this libidinous tale. At the same time, Henri-Pierre Roché, future author of Jules et Jim and a “voracious connoisseur” of sex, found himself under Duchamp’s spell. Also in town was Duchamp’s married friend Francis Picabia, who was smitten with Mary Louise. The plot thickens as Brandon pauses to discuss Duchamp’s Fountain, a groundbreaking “readymade” piece in the form of an upside-down urinal with puzzling “R. Mutt 1917” lettering. But the author quickly returns to the world of parties, alcohol, jazz, and free-wheeling sex as she chronicles the various relationships, with Duchamp, the instigator, lurking in the background along with new player in town photographer Man Ray. Overwhelming at times, in the end, this is really the ladies’ story.

There’s more sex than art in this elaborate, spicy, period piece tell-all.