BAMPFA Director Emeritus Jacquelynn Baas presents her groundbreaking new book Marcel Duchamp and the Art of Life with an illustrated introduction and reading. Duchamp drew on a wide range of sources, from science and mathematics to alchemy. Baas makes the argument that his work may also have been informed by Asian “esoterism”—energetic spiritual practices such as Indo-Tibetan Tantra that identify creative energy with the erotic impulse. The book offers close readings of many artworks, including Duchamp’s sexually explicit Étant donnés: 1. La chute d’eau 2. Le gaz d’éclairage (Given: 1. The Waterfall, 2. The Illuminating Gas).

Baas has organized more than thirty exhibitions, including the BAMPFA projects Berkeley Eye: Perspectives on the Collection and Art Wall: Barbara Stauffacher Solomon. Her publications include Buddha Mind in Contemporary Art and Smile of the Buddha: Eastern Philosophy and Western Art from Monet to Today.