3 Standard Stoppages

Marcel Duchamp · Paris 1913-14

This is 3 Standard Stoppages. Duchamp dropped three metre-long threads from a height of one metre and let them fall as they fell, then fixed each curve to a canvas strip and cut a wooden ruler to match it. The box holds three new units of length, each perfectly accurate to an accident.

Medium Wood box 11 1/8 x 50 7/8 x 9" (28.2 x 129.2 x 22.7 cm), with three threads 39 3/8" (100 cm), glued to three painted canvas strips 5 1/4 x 47 1/4" (13.3 x 120 cm), each mounted on a glass panel 7 1/4 x 49 3/8 x 1/4" (18.4 x 125.4 x 0.6 cm), three wood slats 2 1/2 x 43 x 1/8" (6.2 x 109.2 x 0.2 cm), shaped along one edge to match the curves of the threads · Credit Katherine S. Dreier Bequest

Hanging beside it in The Steven and Alexandra Cohen Center for Special Exhibitions: Female Fig Leaf, Fresh Widow

Works like this one elsewhere in the museum: The Double Dream of Spring

More by Marcel Duchamp here: Why Not Sneeze Rose Sélavy?, In Advance of the Broken Arm, Network of Stoppages, Landscape, The Chess Players, The Passage from Virgin to Bride