Portrait (Dulcinea)
By David Stavanger
Picasso never mentally dressed a woman on the street.
He could bear the thought of less and less clothes.
Picasso approached a subject with an eye detached.
Give me a woman’s hat and I’ll fill it
Duchamp did the downward diagonal. The transition of bride
into a virgin. The sweetness. Of a sturdy Spanish peasant girl.
Multiple single bodies in motion. Clothes take up space.
The pedestrian nature of pleasure. He looked her into pieces.
In response to Marcel Duchamp's ‘Portrait (Dulcinea)’ 1911.
See the artwork that inspired this poem in the flesh, along with more than 100 of Marcel Duchamp’s world-renowned pieces in ‘The Essential Duchamp’ exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, 27 April – 11 August 2019.