Looking at Large Glass

The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even       or
The Large Glass





Descriptions

1.      Bride - attached to halo, mechanical figure on top left
2.       Halo - wavy cloud at top
3.       Nets - three square holes within the halo
4.       Shots - several dots on top
5.       Nine Malic Molds (Bachelors) - nine pants like figures on bottom
6.       Glider - a waterwheel in a metal cage
7.       Grinder - three cylinders in triangle formation bound by two circles and a pole is attached on top
8.       Scissors - two poles with their center being a pole attached to the grinder
9.       Sieves - six cones in an arc
10.       Eyewitnesses - one vertical circle above three horizontal circles 
11.       Cracks - cracks in the glass that happened when moving the painting
12.       Capillary Tubes -light lines above the Malic Molds
13.       Fate Machine - interaction between chance and destiny; contains Glider, the Chocolate Grinder,                             Scissors, and the Eyewitnesses
14.       Amorous Pursuit - attraction between male and female; contains Bride, Nine Malic Molds, Capillary Tubes, Sieves, Shots, Halo , and Nets 
15.       Bride's Domain - Upper Region
16.       Bachelor's Realm  - Lower Region
17.       Horizon - the metal piece in between, or where the bride's domain meets the bachelor's realm

Overview
       This is an abstract erotic painting.  It is oil, varnish, lead foil, lead wire, and dust on two glass panes.  It portrays two sequences of interactions.  One is The Fate Machine a continuous sequence depicting the interaction between chance and destiny.  The other is the Amorous Pursuit a linear sequence depicting the interaction between male and female attraction.  The top half belongs to the bride and the bottom half belongs to her bachelors.  The horizon is where they meet.  To complement this painting Duchamp had notes entitled The Green Box that explained it.


Explanation
   Let us start with the Bride.  She is naked, abstract, mechanical, and bare.  She has a halo and within that halo are three holes or nets.  The halo broadcasts the brides dreams and desires.  The holes in the nets represent a hole in the brides dreams or desires.  If a bachelor hits here the Bride will plunge into his domain.    The dots in the upper half are the shots, they represent where the Bachelors have hit.  They have all missed the target.  The entire upper half is the bride's realm.  The upper half is the sky, female, and id.
    The metal line in the middle is the horizon.  It's where the Bride's domain meets the Bachelor's realm.  This is where the romance action takes place.  It can be anything that involves the attraction between a male and a female.
    The bottom portion is the Bachelor's realm.  It is earth, male, and ego.  There is much more going on in the earth than the sky.  The nine pants figures represents an infinite number of bachelors.  The bachelors, in response to the brides desire, send out their own signal.  It goes through the capillary tubes and the sieves.  At the end of the sieves it shoots upwards to the Bride's domain becoming the shots.  However it can be blocked by the scissors.  Of course to get the Bride it still has to hit the hole in the net.
      Marcel Duchamp called the process of attraction between a male and female, what I just described, The Amorous Pursuit.  There is another process called The Fate Machine going on in this painting, it represents the interaction between chance and destiny.  This is a continuous process within the Bachelor's realm, it serves as an obstacle to the Bachelor.  The Grinder, destiny, is predictable, solid, and mechanical and the Glider ,chance, is unpredictable in its movements, little more than a frame, and mechanical.  The Glider powers the Grinder through a connection at the bottom, that is chance powers destiny.  The scissors are a metaphorical connection between chance and destiny, they also mean danger for whatever hits them.  Occasionally they hit the Eyewitnesses, also part of the Fate Machine, blocking its view of the real world.  The Eyewitnesses can only see the real world and not The Large Glass because they represent visual knowledge and The Large Glass is an abstract world.  The Scissors also can block the Shots of the Bachelor's. 





Much of my explanation comes from here.
In addition to an explanation that site also has an animation.
Below are paintings down in preparation for The Large Glass
Included are:
Bride
Nine Malic Molds
Glider Containing Water Mill in Neighboring Metals
Chocolate Grinder