To be Looked at... by Marcel Duchamp in the Museum of Modern Art, December 2007

Marcel Duchamp. (American, born France. 1887-1968). To Be Looked at (from the Other Side of the Glass) with One Eye, Close to, for Almost an Hour. Buenos Aires 1918. Oil, silver leaf, lead wire, and magnifying lens on glass (cracked), mounted between panes of glass in a standing metal frame, 20 1/8 x 16 1/4 x 1 1/2" (51 x 41.2 x 3.7 cm), on painted wood base, 1 7/8 x 17 7/8 x 4 1/2" (4.8 x 45.3 x 11.4 cm), Overall 22" (55.8 cm) high. Katherine S. Dreier Bequest.

Gallery label text
2006

Inscribed in French on a strip of metal glued across the approximate center of this work are the words,

"To be looked at (from the other side of the glass) with one eye, close to, for almost an hour," suggesting that viewers look through the lens Duchamp mounted between two panes of glass haloed in concentric circles. Peering through the convex lens "for almost an hour" is supposed to have a hallucinatory effect, as the view is dwarfed, flipped, and otherwise distorted. Duchamp delighted in the fact that the glass shattered while being transported.

Text from: www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?object_id=78993