‘We had Duchamp’s last readymade!’

a red circle overlaps an identically sized pale blue circle screenprinted onto a black sheet of paper, a color swatch by alison knowles signed by marcel duchamp — Marcel Duchamp [& Alison Knowles], Color Swatch, 1968, screenprint, 7 ½ x 5 ¾ in., unique, selling at Christie’s in May 2026

When this little Duchamp was sold at Grisebach in 2016, it was, Untitled (from Coeurs Volants), and Alison Knowles was only listed in the provenance.

It’s a color test for the Something Else Press screenprint edition of Coeurs Volant, a collage Duchamp made for Christian Zervos which was printed on the cover of Cahiers d’Art in 1936. Printed and signed in the spring of 1968 before the Duchamps left New York for Spain, it turned out to be the last work Duchamp put out before his death on October 2nd. [Obviously there was Étant Donnés, and he did make some 3D drawings of a fireplace in the house in Cadaqués, but the point here is, on the ground in NYC, it seemed like his last work.]

this screenprint of marcel duchamp's coeurs volants, or flying hearts, is four unevenly sized spaced and cutout hearts set within each other asymmetrically in alternating red and blue, with the intent to reference an optically dynamic effect, if not to actually reproduce it, on black paper. this copy of this edition belonged to andy warhol, who probably bought it as soon as he heard duchamp had died. just a guess — Andy Warhol’s Marcel Duchamp Coeurs Volants, 1968, 24 x 18 in. framed? ed. 11/24, sold at Rago in 2022

Knowles worked at Something Else Press. On her website, here’s how Knowles described the work and told its story:

Coeurs Volants (Flying Hearts) (1967) ->
15 x 22″ Silk Screen on Black Coloraid Paper
Alphabet Edition of Twenty Four.
Color Swatch, 4 x 5″ Silk Screen on Black Coloraid Paper
by Alison Knowles signed by Marcel Duchamp.
Collection Wolfgang Feelisch, Remscheid

Through Daniel Spoerri, the Something Else Press arranged to meet Marcel Duchamp. This screen print was preceeded by a four by five color swatch showing two circles one red, one blue. He selected this color swatch one day while we are having tea at his tenth street apartment in New York. There were eleven color swatches, each showing blue and red circles but in different intensities. He selected one and lefted it out on table saying “Oh, that’s it.” I put the others in my brief case and we kept talking. Teeny Duchamp walked by the table, saw the color swatch and said “MARCEL, when did you do this?” He asked for a pencil, smiled and signed the color swatch. This color swatch was quickly framed and the rumor quickly spread through New York that we had Duchamp’s last readymade! I kept this little swatch for about a year and then sold it to a collecter in Remsheid. Richard Hamilton, to whom I gave a copy of a final print, called this work a piece of memorabilia, not a readymade. Duchamp died the following year but I am sure he would have agreed. I like the story very much because it describes the process as important as the product according to a master.

Which, a lot going on here, starting with Richard Hamilton of all people being kind of a bitch about Duchamp memorabilia, especially after getting a copy of the print. But they’re both not wrong, and I’m sure Duchamp would have approved of the mess.

I don’t think I’m so into Knowles’ takeaway from the story, though I am very interested in what she took away from the meeting, namely the other ten other color swatches that she made, and Duchamp touched but didn’t sign. That Duchamp memorabilia sets my heart aflutter.

But let’s put all that aside and conjure up in our minds the world inside the sentence, “the color swatch was quickly framed and the rumor quickly spread through New York that we had Duchamp’s last readymade!”

19 May 2026, Lot 143: Marcel Duchamp & Alison Knowles, Color Swatch, 1968 [?], est. $15-20,000 [christies]
Previously, related, and also from an auction in 2016: World’s Greatest Richter or World’s Greatest Non-Richter?