Beatrice Wood – Apropos of Marcel Duchamp
Peter d’Agostino © 1987/2026 Video installation Preview: 2 of 11min loop Edition: 5+2 AP
Beatrice Wood sat for this video when she was invited to the Philadelphia Museum of Art for the Duchamp centennial celebration in 1987. Initiated as an interview with cultural historian Steven Watson, Wood recalls her first meetings with Marcel Duchamp, Louise and Walter Arensberg as well as other remarkable events. (Selections from the video are featured in Watson’s documentary, “Beatrice Wood” on the artifacts.movie website.)
Beatrice Wood (1893 –1998) grew up in San Francisco and New York aspiring to an artistic life in Paris. With the outbreak of World War I, she returned to New York where she met Marcel Duchamp and Henri-Pierre Roché, a life-altering encounter. Wood published the influential little magazine “The Blind Man” and helped organize the grand bohemian ball in 1917. In the 1920s, embracing Krishnamurti’s teachings, she moved to Ojai, California to be near him. Her distinguished ceramics career continued until her death at 105. Beatrice partially inspired the fictional character, Rose, in the 1997 film, “Titanic.”