Trap (Trébuchet) Revisions

Timeline — readymade series of “Trébuchet” (Coatrack), as seen by spectators

  • 1941 — 2D print in Boîte‑en‑valise
    Retouched print derived from a 1916–17 studio photograph; shows backward‑leaning hook geometry compared to later technical material.[S1]
  • 1960s (made 1916–17; found/published 1960s) — 2D “original” studio photo
    Photo of the coatrack in Duchamp’s studio; source for the 1941 print; contains perspective anomalies and leaning hooks.[S1]
  • 1964 — 3D iron‑and‑wood model (Schwarz edition)
    Authorized reconstruction. Hooks are straighter than in early images; geometry does not replicate the studio photo/Boîte print.[S1]
  • 1983 (made c. 1940; found 1983) — 2D working print (Ecke Bonk discovery)
    Pochoir preparation proof for the 1941 Boîte showing cut‑and‑paste assembly (separate maskings of hooks and board); foundational evidence for compositing technique.[S1]
  • 1991 (drawn 1964; widely seen 1991) — 2D blueprint
    Technical drawing for the Schwarz reconstruction; presents straight hook geometry and specifications (e.g., iron), diverging from the leaning hooks of early photo/print.[S1]

Takeaway: The series (two 2D prints, one 2D studio photo, one 3D edition, one 2D blueprint) does not describe a single, stable coatrack. The observed differences—combined with the 1940 working print—support the broader compositing/perspective argument applied by Shearer to Duchamp’s readymade imagery.[S1]

References

Empirical source (object data, images, analyses)

  1. [S1] Rhonda Roland Shearer (with Gregory Alvarez, Robert Slawinski, Vittorio Marchi; text box by Stephen Jay Gould), “Why the Hatrack is and/or is not Readymade,” Tout‑Fait, published 2000‑12‑01; updated 2019‑05‑11. Includes videos, animations, and interactive models documenting the six hatrack representations, blueprint/model divergences, and related photographic compositing analyses. toutfait.com.

General references (Duchamp, Schwarz editions, context)

  1. [G1] Pierre Cabanne, Dialogues with Marcel Duchamp. (Duchamp’s statements on perspective as “mathematical, scientific,” anti‑retinal aims.)
  2. [G2] Arturo Schwarz, The Complete Works of Marcel Duchamp, rev. ed. (Documentation of readymades and the 1964 editions.)
  3. [G3] William A. Camfield, Marcel Duchamp Fountain (1989). (Urinal documentation; methodological issues germane to readymade reconstructions.)
  4. [G4] Kirk Varnedoe & Adam Gopnik (eds.), High and Low: Modern Art and Popular Culture, MoMA (1990). (Context on readymades, replication, mass culture.)
  5. [G5] Calvin Tomkins, Duchamp: A Biography. (Biographical and contextual background.)
  6. [G6] Marcel Duchamp, The Green Box (1934) & In the Infinitive / White Box (1967). (Notes on timing/seriality and diagrams of “cuts” between wholes and parts referenced in Shearer’s analysis.)
  7. [G7] Ecke Bonk, Marcel Duchamp: The Portable Museum (1989). (Publication history and working materials for the Boîte‑en‑valise, including pochoir‑related findings.)
  8. [G8] Francis M. Naumann, Marcel Duchamp: The Art of Making Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. (Reception and duplication debates.)

References [G1]–[G8] are standard sources for verifying claims about Duchamp’s interviews and statements, Arturo Schwarz’s 1964 editions, and the broader art‑historical and geographic context of the readymades. Empirical object specifics (hook counts/geometry by snapshot, blueprint/model divergences, and the coatrack pochoir working print) are cited to [S1].

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Trébuchet (Trap) survives through two prints, a photograph, a blueprint and a three-dimensional replica of a coatrack replicated in 1964 by Arturo Schwarz on view at the Israel Museum and as a miniature print/reproduction in Duchamp’s La Boîte-en-valise, a “portable museum” of replicas. [1] [2] The French title Trébuchet (literally “trebuchet”) puns on trébucher (“to trip, stumble”) with allusions to a well-known mutual-zugzwang position in chess.

In 1917, Marcel Duchamp fixed a board and four double hooks near an entryway. He recalls that the readymade stayed on the floor, that he kept knocking against it and eventually managed to nail it down.

Surviving representations of a wooden coatrack have in common the futility of describing the readymade as a single, consistent object. In a 1916–17 photo that was used as a primary reference for the replica after its discovery in the 1960s, an iron and wood model aligns with institutional cataloguing but does not align with the Boîte print. (Schwarz’s hooks are much straighter.) The blueprint and model, both executed by Schwarz in 1964, are coherent; similarly, 1916-17 photograph and the Boîte print each feature leaning hooks.

Classification

Centre Pompidou lists the dimensions as 19 × 100 × 13 cm.

The Duchamp research portal records the same dimensions and transcribes the inscription “TREBUCHET 1917 / EDITION GALERIE SCHWARZ, MILAN,” alongside the artist’s handwritten note for the exemplar; classifies it “assisted readymade: coat rack,” and records its dimensions as 19 × 100.1 × 11.6 cm.

Encyclopædia Britannica characterizes Dada as a nihilistic and antiaesthetic movement that flourished in the early twentieth century. In a 1953 account widely repeated in later scholarship, the medieval siege engine, and, in chess, a mutual trap situation in pawn endgames, gave conceptual art its bleeding edge.

Fourteen of Duchamp’s readymades, including Trébuchet, were remade under the artist’s supervision. As in the case of other replica readymades, the edition typically comprised eight copies for sale, two artist’s proofs (one each for Duchamp and Schwarz), and two hors de commerce for exhibition or museums.

"Exhibitions 1999: Museum as Muse — Duchamp Boîte‑en‑valise". The Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 2025-09-28.

"Trap (Trébuchet)". The Israel Museum, Jerusalem. Retrieved 2025-09-28.

Shearer, Rhonda Roland (2000-12-01). "Why the Hatrack is and/or is not Readymade: With Interactive Software, Animations and Videos". Tout‑fait: The Marcel Duchamp Studies Online Journal. Retrieved 2025-09-28.

"Trébuchet (Trap)". Centre Pompidou. Retrieved 2025-09-28.

"Dada". Encyclopædia Britannica. 2025-08-23. Retrieved 2025-09-28.

Daniels, Dieter (2019). "The Second Half of the Readymade Century (1964–)". The Nordic Journal of Aesthetics. Retrieved 2025-09-28.