Marcel Duchamp

7 / 26

Marcel Duchamp. *3 Standard Stoppages*. 1913–14. 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. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Katherine S. Dreier Bequest. © 2026 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris / Estate of Marcel Duchamp

Marcel Duchamp. 3 Standard Stoppages. 1913–14 606

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. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Katherine S. Dreier Bequest. © 2026 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris / Estate of Marcel Duchamp

Artist, Liz Deschenes:   I think he’s pointing out how arbitrary our measurement systems are.

My name is Liz Deschenes. I’m a visual artist.

There’s many things that Duchamp was addressing in this work, and one of them is standardization. How do we come up with a measurement? The measurement he was navigating here is the meter.
 
Curator, Michelle Kuo: He drops three meter-long pieces of string on the ground, and then he traces the shape in which they landed.

Ann Temkin: And then, he carved these wooden forms that mimic the shape of the three threads in order to use them as rulers in making future works of art.

Michelle Kuo: It’s basically saying, I’m gonna take a standard—the meter—and let gravity do its thing and let chance act upon that system.

Liz Deschenes:   It allows for an experimentation, and it allows for potentially new invention. The work becomes a sort of archive of chance, Something that measures chance, as opposed to something that measures space.

There’s always a subversive element to Duchamp’s work, that he’s not gonna accept any of this on face value. I think in Duchamp’s work and life, there’s a refusal. I think the refusal is actually a really political stance.