Matta-Duchamp

were tidied up for the published text, where his crucial
conception of the “image in itself” (a phrase with
an unfortunately Heideggerian ring) is clarified. This is
not meant as a kind of philosophical absolute, but as a
contrast to the image as the representation of a “petrified
thing or object”.
“The image is not a thing.
It is an act which must be completed by the spectator.”
The first sentence is recognisably Matta’s, the second
envisages image and spectator, as, together, a dynamic
reality. The idea that the work “cannot be completed
except through the conscious participation of the onlooker”
was to be the leitmotiv of Duchamp’s later lecture
“The Creative Act” (1957). “All in all, the creative
act is not performed by the artist alone; the spectator
brings the work in contact with the external world by
deciphering and interpreting its inner qualifications and
thus adds his contribution to the creative act.” 56 Plausibly
this was an idea discussed by Duchamp, Dreier
and Matta during their many meetings in New York in
the early 1940s. However, Duchamp is really concerned
with the spectator as posterity, as the historical factor
which determines the survival or disappearance of the
notre imagination par une operations incessament (necessairement?) produite
par ses tableaux a monte dans l’espace libre de spirit [en du]une raizon
poetique nous devoile le reel”. ibid p. 107
56. The Writings of Marcel Duchamp op cit pp 138-140
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