Alexina "Teeny" Duchamp (née Sattler; January 6, 1906 – December 20, 1995) was the wife of

Pierre Matisse Pierre Matisse (June 13, 1900 – August 10, 1989) was a French-American art dealer active in New York City. He was the youngest child of French painter Henri Matisse. Background and early years Pierre Matisse was born in Bohain-en-Vermandois on ...

, daughter-in-law of artist

Henri Matisse Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known prima ...

, and second wife of artist and chess player

Marcel Duchamp Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (, , ; 28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, and conceptual art. Duchamp is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Picasso ...

Background

She was born Alexina Sattler in

Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

in 1906. The youngest daughter of prominent surgeon Robert Sattler, Alexina was nicknamed "Teeny" by her mother Agnes Mitchell because of her

low birth weight Low birth weight (LBW) is defined by the World Health Organization as a birth weight of an infant of or less, regardless of gestational age. Infants born with LBW have added health risks which require close management, often in a neonatal intensi ...

Paris and marriage to Pierre Matisse

Alexina Duchamp, Jacqueline Matisse - GianAngelo Pistoia 1

Sattler at first thought of becoming an artist and went to Paris in 1921, where for a time she studied sculpture with

Constantin Brâncuși Constantin Brâncuși (; February 19, 1876 – March 16, 1957) was a Romanian Sculpture, sculptor, painter and photographer who made his career in France. Considered one of the most influential sculptors of the 20th-century and a pioneer of ...

at the

Académie de la Grande Chaumière The Académie de la Grande Chaumière is an art school in the Montparnasse district of Paris, France. History The school was founded in 1904 by the Catalan painter Claudio Castelucho on the rue de la Grande Chaumière in Paris, near the Acadé ...

in Paris.John Russell (December 22, 1995)
Alexina Duchamp, Dada Artist's Wife And Colleague, 89
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''. She first met

in 1923 at a ball given in her honor by American sculptor Mariette Benedict Mills, the mother of a close friend. In 1929 Teeny married

, an art dealer and the youngest son of Fauve artist

. They had three children:

Jacqueline Jacqueline may refer to: People * Jacqueline (given name), including a list of people with the name * Jacqueline Moore (born 1964), ring name "Jacqueline", American professional wrestler Arts and entertainment * ''Jacqueline'' (1923 film), ...

Paul Paul may refer to: *Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name) *Paul (surname), a list of people People Christianity *Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chris ...

, and Peter. Throughout 1938,

made a series of portrait sketches of Alexina. When her husband was mobilized in Paris at the outbreak of World War II, she ran his gallery for some months. In 1949 Pierre and Teeny separated due to Pierre's infidelity with Patricia Kane Matta, the former wife of surrealist painter

Roberto Matta Roberto Sebastián Antonio Matta Echaurren (; November 11, 1911 – November 23, 2002), better known as Roberto Matta, was one of Chile's best-known painters and a seminal figure in 20th century abstract expressionist and surrealist art. Bio ...

. She received many important paintings in the subsequent divorce settlement. She worked for a time as an agent and broker for artists such as Brâncuși and

Joan Miró Joan Miró i Ferrà ( , , ; 20 April 1893 – 25 December 1983) was a Catalan painter, sculptor and ceramicist born in Barcelona. A museum dedicated to his work, the Fundació Joan Miró, was established in his native city of Barcelona i ...

New York and marriage to Marcel Duchamp

In the autumn of 1951 she was invited by

Dorothea Tanning Dorothea Margaret Tanning (25 August 1910 – 31 January 2012) was an American painter, printmaker, sculptor, writer, and poet. Her early work was influenced by Surrealism. Biography Dorothea Tanning was born and raised in Galesburg, Illin ...

to go on a weekend trip in

Hunterdon County Hunterdon County is a county located in the western section of the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the county's population was 128,947, making it the state's 18th-most populous county,chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...

players. Teeny and Duchamp married in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

on January 16, 1954. They lived in New York and in Paris; around 1958, the couple began spending summers in

Cadaqués Cadaqués () is a town in the Alt Empordà ''comarca'', in the province of Girona, Catalonia, Spain. It is on a bay in the middle of the Cap de Creus peninsula, near Cap de Creus cape, on the Costa Brava of the Mediterranean. It is two-and-a-quar ...

, Spain, on the Costa Brava. They were together until his death in 1968. Following Duchamp's death, Alexina moved to

Villiers-sous-Grez Villiers-sous-Grez is a commune in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. Demographics Inhabitants of Villiers-sous-Grez are called ''Villarons''. See also *Communes of the Seine-et-Marne departmen ...

, near Paris, where she assembled an archive of photographs and other material documenting the life and work of her late husband. She maintained a close friendship with many of Duchamp's friends, including

Jasper Johns Jasper Johns (born May 15, 1930) is an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker whose work is associated with abstract expressionism, Neo-Dada, and pop art. He is well known for his depictions of the American flag and other US-related top ...

, Richard Hamilton, composer

John Cage John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading fi ...

, Gianfranco Baruchello, and choreographer

Merce Cunningham Mercier Philip "Merce" Cunningham (April 16, 1919 – July 26, 2009) was an American dancer and choreographer who was at the forefront of American modern dance for more than 50 years. He frequently collaborated with artists of other discipl ...

.Alexina and Marcel Duchamp Papers

Philadelphia Museum of Art The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMoA) is an art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at the northwest end of the Benjamin Fr ...

Alexander Calder Alexander Calder (; July 22, 1898 – November 11, 1976) was an American sculptor known both for his innovative mobiles (kinetic sculptures powered by motors or air currents) that embrace chance in their aesthetic, his static "stabiles", and his ...

presented her with individually designed jewelry. She also served as an honorary trustee of the

, which has the largest collection of Duchamp's work.

References

Reading

*Tomkins, Calvin, ''Duchamp: A Biography''. Henry Holt and Company, Inc., 1996. *Baruchello, Gianfranco & Martin, Henry, ''Why Duchamp: An Essay on Aesthetic Impact'', McPherson, 1985,

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Duchamp, Alexina American art dealers Women art dealers 1906 births 1995 deaths People from Cincinnati Matisse family