Marcel Duchamp, Roue de bicyclette (Bicycle Wheel), 1913/1960/1976. © Succession Marcel Duchamp/BUS 2015

STOCKHOLM.- Moderna Museet has acquired Ulf Linde’s Duchamp archive, with support from Åke Bonnier. The archive includes sketches, letters, signed photographs by Marcel Duchamp and books with the artist’s dedications. On 28–30 April, internationally prominent scholars, specialists and curators will meet for a three-day seminar at Moderna Museet in Stockholm, to discuss recent research into the legacy of Duchamp and his post-war art. 

“Moderna Museet has a historically significant relationship to the enigmatic Duchamp, who stands out today as one of the most influential artists of the previous century. This wonderful acquisition is crucial to anyone wishing to understand his oeuvre,” says Daniel Birnbaum, director of Moderna Museet. 

Åke Bonnier, bishop of Skara bishopric in the Church of Sweden, comments on his support: “The importance of Marcel Duchamp’s presence at Moderna Museet, to both Swedish and international art life, is beyond a doubt. I am happy to be able to support research into the intriguing dialogue that arose between Marcel Duchamp and Ulf Linde here in Stockholm.” 

Moderna Museet has one of the world’s most valuable collections of works by Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968). In connection with the exhibition Rörelse i konsten (Movement in Art, 1961), Duchamp visited Stockholm and embarked on an intense collaboration with the art critic Ulf Linde (1929–2013), who created replicas of practically all the artist’s key works during a few years. Marcel Duchamp signed the replicas and regarded them as authentic versions. The impact of this collection on Duchamp’s international reputation after the war can hardly be exaggerated. The replicas have been exhibited reepeatedly at some of the world’s major museums of modern art. Moderna Museet has now created a special room for the permanent display of its entire collection of Duchamp’s works. 

“In connection with the symposium Duchamp and Sweden, we will also show Duchamp’s notebooks and the letters he wrote to Linde. Being able to study this historic material is of great value to anyone who is interested in the development of modern art,” says Ann-Sofi Noring, co-director of Moderna Museet.