“In December 1963 I was assigned by Time Magazine in New York to photograph artist Marcel Duchamp and his retrospective at the Pasadena Art Museum. I knew and loved his work. I had seen it for years and I looked forward to meeting and photographing him. I had recently done a series of nude photographs of 20-year-old Eve Babitz who had a body worthy of a Reubens. She was a fan of Duchamp and played chess. I thought we could make some good photos together. I went to the Museum where director/curator Walter Hoppes and Marcel were waiting. Eve arrived, got undressed, and the shooting started. The key shot was Duchamp, a chess fan, playing chess with the nude Eve in front of his large glass piece “The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even”. I lit the gallery with electronic flash and tried to show as many of Marcel’s iconic works in the scene as possible. Later I made pictures of him with many of his other pieces in other rooms of The Pasadena. The photos have been used in countless books, magazines, newspapers, and websites but never in Time Magazine or by Time-Life Books in any of their art books.”
- Julian Wasser, March 2011
