Marcel Duchamp
American, born France 1887-1968
12 Rotoreliefs
INV-2486
Marcel Duchamp
American, born France 1887-19681953
12 Rotoreliefs
Marcel Duchamp American, born France 1887-1968 →20th CenturyDadaprint
Date
1953
Medium
6 discs (12 photomechanical prints) in sleeve
Dimensions
26 cm in diameter
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Mary Reynolds Collection Fund, Ryerson & Burnham Libraries
Duchamp had a well-documented interest in optical illusions, employing them as visual manifestations of puns. Applying optical illusions to mechanical and kinetic forms, he created Rotoreliefs, which are discs printed with hypnotic designs meant to come alive while spun on a turntable. The idea of this “playtoy” as Duchamp dubbed them, stemmed from his Dadaist film Anemic Cinema, which featured an early version of the Rotoreliefs displaying cheeky puns on rotating discs.
Duchamp created 500 sets of Rotoreliefs in total, each with six double-sided discs presenting 12 designs of varying colors and illusions. Duchamp debuted his creations at an inventors’ fair in 1953 and sold very few. Despite the project being a commercial failure, Duchamp’s use of movement to convey depth was admired by optical scientists, who hoped the concept could be used to help patients with one eye regain three-dimensional perception.
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