Bradley Bailey
Bradley Bailey is an associate professor of art history at Saint Louis University. He is coauthor of Marcel Duchamp: The Art of Chess with Francis M. Naumann and Jennifer Shahade. His analysis of the origins of Fountain drawn from an unpublished interview with Duchamp will be published in the Summer 2022 issue of October.
It comes as no surprise to read in the most recent bulletin of the Saint Louis Art Museum that the museum’s spectacular exhibition Roaring: Art, Fashion, and the Automobile in France, 1918–1939, on view until July 27, is one of its most popular in years.
Intimidated but inspired, I identified an aspect of Duchamp’s life that had not been investigated quite so rigorously: his passion for chess, a pursuit that appeared to have been as curious to art historians as his art had undoubtedly been to his chess competitors.
