The 1999 Harvard Symposium on Duchamp and Poincaré

Artist Marc Latamie has been living and working in New York City since 1985. Over the course of his career, he has been asked to speak at a number of prestigious artistic institutions including the École du Louvre and the Musée National d’Art Moderne in Paris, France. In 1999, Marc Latamie attended a symposium on Marcel Duchamp and Henry Poincaré at Harvard. University.

From November 5 to November 7, 1999, Harvard University hosted a symposium entitled “Method of Understanding in Art and Science: The Case of Duchamp and Poincaré” at the Harvard University Science Center. At the event, a gathering of approximately 200 scholars examined the shared and relevant concerns of artist Marcel Duchamp and mathematician/philosopher Henry Poincaré.

Symposium guests and attendees included academic and industry professionals hailing from a wide range of disciplines. Examining the cultural overlap and integrated methodology of art and science, the gathering brought mathematicians and physicists together with art historians and postmodern theorists to spark a truly unique and enlightening dialogue.                            

Marc Latamie - A Look at Marcel Duchamp

Primarily based in New York City, artist Marc Latamie utilizes the theme of universalism in most of his works. One of his strongest influences is Marcel Duchamp; Marc Latamie had lectured on Duchamp works at the Cooper Union School for the Arts and at New York University and contribueted to the online journal dedicated to the research on Duchamp..

Born in 1887 in France, Marcel Duchamp became one of the most influenced artists of the 20th century. Called a “one-man movement” by Willem de Kooning, Duchamp developed a counter-field from his contemporaries by approaching the mental rather than the visual aspects of art. During the first part of his career, he experimented with then-popular styles such as impressionism and cubism. His 1912 Nude Descending a Staircase (No. 2) used the cubist style to present his subject in motion rather than the traditional static image. Arguably his most famous painting, it initially received negative reviews in Paris, where the work was banned from the important Salon d'Automne.

Following this period, Marcel Duchamp introduced the “readymade,” perhaps his most lasting legacy. Abandoning painting in the years before World War I, Duchamp utilized everyday objects as art. He placed mass-produced pieces such as bicycle wheels, shovels, and windows on display to challenge conceptions of art and beauty. Despite being considered a pioneer with the Dada movement, Duchamp became also a master on playing chess. He passed away in 1968.