https://www.duchampspipe.com/home daily 1.0 2020-10-27 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ee7d7cc2595620a059086f2/1594340589642-6R7HZNNI8KHWF74M1VWG/49675622617_afe0ba9106_o.jpg Duchamp's Pipe - Spanning three decades, two continents, two world wars, and the international art and chess scenes of the mid twentieth century, Duchamp's Pipe explores the remarkable friendship between art world enfant terrible Marcel Duchamp and blindfold chess champion George Koltanowski. Starting with the recently discovered pipe that Duchamp gave to Koltanowski, artist and cultural historian Celia Rabinovitch uncovers each man's motivations through the chess matches that sparked their relationship. This tale of genius and resilience offers fresh insights into the meaning of the gift in the bohemian underground, where we discover the bond between the eccentric chess wizard Koltanowski and the notorious Dadaist artist Duchamp. We invite you to enjoy this expanded background - meant to enhance reading Duchamp's Pipe. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ee7d7cc2595620a059086f2/1594769014791-VGQLFUZVFE09WXBA8G2K/0N4A7749_darker_bw_cropped.jpg Duchamp's Pipe https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ee7d7cc2595620a059086f2/1594766511848-10UH6FP4CNXYOYX62QGE/story2.jpg Duchamp's Pipe https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ee7d7cc2595620a059086f2/1594860741843-SWD1C26LCKIFUTO2MMT1/Characters3.jpg Duchamp's Pipe https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ee7d7cc2595620a059086f2/1594860747672-8KPUS923BUAGJTD82YHB/Voyages2.jpg Duchamp's Pipe https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ee7d7cc2595620a059086f2/1594860777788-GNK0496YCF0K8YI1AQDZ/mischief2.jpg Duchamp's Pipe https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ee7d7cc2595620a059086f2/1594860918697-IUXNGQUIIRJ51Y774CCM/News3.jpg Duchamp's Pipe https://www.duchampspipe.com/characters daily 0.75 2020-10-27 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ee7d7cc2595620a059086f2/1597709465802-LCDJWDD53CL7RJ5UQN2Y/Study+for+Portrait+of+Chess+Players_.jpg Characters - The vivid characters of Duchamp's Pipe include Marcel's friends from his early life in Paris—the French poet Guillaume Apollinaire (above right), the flamboyant Dadaist artist Francis Picabia (above left) and the writer Gabrielle Buffet Picabia (center). In 1912, Duchamp, Apollinaire and Francis Picabia took a perilous nighttime car trip on the Jura-Paris road to retrieve Gabrielle Buffet. The journey affected Duchamp deeply - his poetic notes on it appear in his collection of work The Green Box (1934). Apollinaire transformed his memories of the treacherous trip into an ominous vision of World War I in his poem The Little Car (1916). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ee7d7cc2595620a059086f2/1597711273141-OPGMC531WZSKAITGKYEQ/Man_Ray%2C_1920-21%2C_Portrait_of_Marcel_Duchamp.jpg Characters Marcel Duchamp https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ee7d7cc2595620a059086f2/1597710687786-3EIDKWAZEO61LWBL2NG0/GK+puzzling+over+chess+board+Berkeley+1941.jpg Characters George Koltanowski https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ee7d7cc2595620a059086f2/1597416690852-9HXN1UNW7IIXEZ8TEONV/Alekhine-y-Koltanowski-jugando-simultaneas-de-ajedrez-a-ciegas.jpg Characters https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ee7d7cc2595620a059086f2/1597416658004-17QRDZBMJ6GTT73XV82W/Duchamp+w.+Brothers.jpg Characters https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ee7d7cc2595620a059086f2/1597419145764-46E9REC2G0BOXWA8KO3M/Tournoi+d%27Echecs+Fide+1924.jpg Characters https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ee7d7cc2595620a059086f2/1597420378295-7ADHPAUDQPXWGSHX3XP9/Koltanowski+Santa+Rosa+Blindfold+poster.jpg Characters - Once he arrived in North America, Koltanowski expanded the audience for chess. A showman, he fascinated large audiences with his astonishing displays of memory in the medieval chess game of the Knight's Tour. Koltanowski moved from New York to Santa Rosa, California and then to San Francisco in 1947. Making his new home in California, he became the chess columnist for the Santa Rosa Press Democrat in 1947 and the San Francisco Chronicle in 1948 - salting witticisms and anecdotes into his 52-year chess column. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ee7d7cc2595620a059086f2/1597500746596-2EA8TL3ZR12LLJ3P2HUR/George+de+Zayas-+repaired+Duchamp+copy.jpg Characters Marcel Duchamp by George de Zayas, 1919. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ee7d7cc2595620a059086f2/1597500800718-ZPIRTB553P18VSUWY4MH/George+Koltanowski+Cartoon+by+Camacho.jpg Characters George Koltanowski by T Camacho, 1939. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ee7d7cc2595620a059086f2/1597709862187-E5LRDYXT04E7LS5RG86A/MDP_B028_F026_.jpg Characters https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ee7d7cc2595620a059086f2/1597418332398-7OQP47N5P1S7V3PRQ7AK/%28c01g0030%29George-Koltanowski+in+Madrid+1936.jpg Characters https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ee7d7cc2595620a059086f2/1597418551101-AAAMYSWG5GPA6Q16VW4X/Frank+Marshall+-+c+1920.jpg Characters https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ee7d7cc2595620a059086f2/1597418361339-6RETG0Z30H4E46SYLO54/%28C01G0028%29Duchamp1930ish.jpg Characters https://www.duchampspipe.com/mischief daily 0.75 2020-10-27 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ee7d7cc2595620a059086f2/1599607775629-HD6W9TDJZJ8RMI5IOSO1/alice0045ds-2-2.jpg Mischief - George and Marcel were spiced with mischief. Their exhibitions or tournaments employed irony and wit, drawing from the Surrealist stream of imagination. George often performed with an actual blindfold, as if he were a visionary, and Duchamp played tricks on the viewer by changing the frame of reference of art. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ee7d7cc2595620a059086f2/1599608818816-A3S9K5U7XWALOX9QZUMH/Juan_Gris_-_Chessboard%2C_Glass%2C_and_Dish+1917.jpg Mischief Juan Gris, Chessboard, Glass and Dish, 1917 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ee7d7cc2595620a059086f2/1599606953248-0USLLY22LK8GC9B844JK/Parade_l.jpg Mischief https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ee7d7cc2595620a059086f2/1599610720652-HF10YALQ41SDU719L9ME/Apollinaire_a_202_boulevard_St_Germain_400.jpg Mischief Apolliniare smoking his pipe in Picasso's studio, circa 1910 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ee7d7cc2595620a059086f2/1599612915753-OVM9043B9YNBKX8W7LOI/beatrice+wood+new+york+1912ny.jpg Mischief Beatrice Wood, New York 1912, before she met Marcel Duchamp and Henri-Pierre Roché. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ee7d7cc2595620a059086f2/1599606175602-RYVFETZCUOGWA7Y99Y16/LIttile+Girl+Parade.jpg Mischief https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ee7d7cc2595620a059086f2/1599608770284-KGMJXDXE93W8GL4Z0339/Picasso+Garc%E2%95%A0%C2%BAon_a%E2%95%A0%C3%87_la_pipe.jpg Mischief Picasso, Garçon à la Pipe (Boy with a Pipe), 1905. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ee7d7cc2595620a059086f2/1600458621920-HSTE6U7CV92PEMX5DSMD/Henri%252BPierre%252BRoche%252B5way.jpg Mischief The diplomat and writer, Henri-Pierre Roché https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ee7d7cc2595620a059086f2/1600279530334-OYPIOW75VBF9RG363JD5/1060426.jpg Mischief Marcel Duchamp https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ee7d7cc2595620a059086f2/1599611734789-DAS3SBIFYPZ07C95Y551/elsa-and-claude-mckay1.jpg Mischief Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven, who offered poems to Duchamp, ''Marcel, Marcel, I love you like hell.'' https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ee7d7cc2595620a059086f2/1600279631232-6RORWM7KYW38YA7HA4E3/Mina+Loy+1905+photo+by+Stephen+Haweis.jpg Mischief Mina Loy, poet and painter, who participated in the Arensberg’s salons 1915-18. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ee7d7cc2595620a059086f2/1599606987774-SN1CRA265T7ALTNMCWYZ/Parade-2.jpg Mischief https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ee7d7cc2595620a059086f2/1599612966503-HLVZYZ0PDGYWOZH5K346/Brancusi+Ducham+Mary+Reynolds.jpg Mischief Constantin Brancusi, Marcel Duchamp and Mary Reynolds in Villefranche, France, 1929. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ee7d7cc2595620a059086f2/1599612981113-7CHA40E1Y30WYM8XIF3C/Duchamp%27s+Friends+outside+of+the+Jockey+-+Man+Ray+Tzara+etc.png Mischief The Crowd outside The Jockey in Paris in 1923. Front row: Man Ray, Mina Loy, Tristan Tzara, Jean Cocteau Middle row: Kiki, Jane Heap, Margaret Anderson, Ezra Pound Top row: Bill Bird on the left, Hilaire Hiler and Curtiss Moffit on the right. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ee7d7cc2595620a059086f2/1599613152035-48OSO70GAS285M2C0J35/Giorgio+de+Chirico+1928.jpg Mischief Giorgio de Chirico in the Parisian studio with "The Archaeologists", 1928. Duchamp knew Giorgio de Chirico in the 1920's and continued his friendship although Andre Breton excluded him from Surrealsim. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ee7d7cc2595620a059086f2/1600279742801-ZMMP9XX6I5UT25BDV9QA/Koltanowski+Blindfold+Edinburgh+Chess+Tournament+1937.jpg Mischief Koltanowski performing blindfolded at the Edinburgh Chess Tournament, 1937. Koltanowski developed into a showman as he became well known. https://www.duchampspipe.com/story daily 0.75 2022-02-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ee7d7cc2595620a059086f2/1595285163288-KAGWN92SGBYA0TS2V8SK/Storypipe4.jpg Story - A chance meeting in San Francisco's North Beach at a counterculture conference was the opening move in the discovery of Duchamp's pipe. Above Enrico's restaurant on Broadway and Columbus in San Francisco's North Beach, I met Nikki Lastreto. She had worked with the blindfold chess champion George Koltanowski at the San Francisco Chronicle for nearly a decade. Her lasting friendship with Koltanowski—a terrific showman who wrote books describing his famed chess partners—was sealed with an unusual gift. When Nikki left the Chronicle for northern California, George presented her with a pipe signed by his friend Marcel Duchamp. Hidden in a manila envelope for over forty years, the rough burlwood pipe evoked the sensations and images of George's friendship with the Dadaist artist. I sought the significance of the pipe in the relationship between these two men, uncovering their ideas and whimsical ventures in the bohemian underground of coffeehouse chess. The pipe contained the story of Duchamp and Koltanowski, and their friends in audacious bohemia - the vivid associations that created early twentieth-century culture. https://www.duchampspipe.com/voyages daily 0.75 2020-10-27 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ee7d7cc2595620a059086f2/1597186746755-05M6VFLB3BTFHGIM01XW/FIRST-PAPERS-small3.jpg Voyages https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ee7d7cc2595620a059086f2/1597189887557-HLAI38TCXHZ4KFZFE9NP/Normandie+1.jpg Voyages - Marcel Duchamp and George Koltanowski crossed the Atlantic for art exhibitions, chess games, and to relocate from wars and strife - moving from Paris or Antwerp to New York, Buenos Aires or Brussels. In the 1920s they traveled for tournaments and exhibitions. By the 1930s George voyaged to play in Barcelona, Madrid and Edinburgh, and then he embarked on a chess tour the Americas in 1938. The Nazi invasion of Belgium in early 1940 prevented his return. In occupied France, where he was considered a degenerate artist, Duchamp often posed as a cheese dealer moving between Paris and the south of France. He escaped occupied France in May 1942, leaving from Marseilles to Casablanca on a battered frigate, the Maréchal Lyautey — and from Lisbon on the Portuguese ship the Serpa Pinto. While each of them traveled independently, onboard they played chess, smoked and imagined future journeys. Thus both men escaped World War II by transatlantic passage. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ee7d7cc2595620a059086f2/1597192284028-6MD4OTD48DETW0NGE8HO/Le_Rochambeau%2C_Paquebot_a_turbine%2C_Compagnie_Ge%E2%95%A0%C3%BCne%E2%95%A0%C3%BCrale_Transatlantique.jpg Voyages https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ee7d7cc2595620a059086f2/1596583421469-U5RI1EOP438PY1H2V1WW/crofton_hall_04.jpg Voyages - In 1918 Duchamp left New York for Buenos Aires on the SS Crofton Hall, returning in the spring of 1919 for Brussels and Paris on the Holland America Line’s ship the Noordam. Duchamp's life compelled many transatlantic voyages - to arrange exhibitions of Brancusi and to study chess with Frank Marshall in New York, or with Edmond Lancel in Brussels. He returned to New York in 1919 on the ship La Touraine - the year that Koltanowski won the Belgian Chess Championship. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ee7d7cc2595620a059086f2/1596583798957-NCP3IHDV63G7YSY0360S/La_Touraine_Leaving+Port+07.jpg Voyages https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ee7d7cc2595620a059086f2/1597255124170-R1WCFJY7T9SFCWDOM9KG/Young+George+Koltanowski+1919.jpg Voyages - As a child, George stepped on a rusty nail while onboard ship with his family, while escaping to England from the German invasion of Belgium in World War I. He spent several years recovering from his injury— and honing his memory and math skills in a London hospital. Koltanowski was drafted into the Belgian army in 1919, but due to his status was allowed to play chess tournaments in Europe. Then, in 1938, he traveled to Québec City, moving across North America, winning games, teaching, and astounding the audience with his memory skills. When war broke out between Germany and Belgium in May 1940, he was in South America. He tried to leave to rejoin his family, but by then he could not return to Europe. He lost his father, Gabriel, his mother, Miriam, and three siblings to the Holocaust. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ee7d7cc2595620a059086f2/1597254883548-1JK02UPVGC926B5N9YYR/Koltanowski+c+1921+chess.jpg Voyages 1921 - April 13: George Koltanowski plays his first first simultaneous blindfold exhibition in Ghent, playing two of his brothers (Jack and Harry); he wins both games. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ee7d7cc2595620a059086f2/1596585948262-KD9CXQS1RJPT5T2X3R9R/First_Class_Grand_Foyer_and_staircase_of_the_SS_France_of_1912.jpg Voyages 1921 - June 9: Marcel Duchamp returns on the SS France leaving from New York to Le Havre; he arrives in France on June 16. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ee7d7cc2595620a059086f2/1597255530726-HYA5BQYM7UBY5GCFBNEL/Edmond_Lancel.jpg Voyages 1923 - February 10: Marcel Duchamp departs from the US on the MS Noordam to Rotterdam, the Netherlands. He stays in Brussels to study with Edmond Lancel (above) at his chess club, Le Cygne. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ee7d7cc2595620a059086f2/1596585920415-J6R8SCV91HEIJ93S7FT8/SS_Aquitania.jpg Voyages 1924 - January 28: Marcel Duchamp departs Paris for New York on the SS Aquitania: he arrives in February. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ee7d7cc2595620a059086f2/1596589008288-L6QBIP33KJTPBT0FSJMI/Photo11-SS-ParisOfTheFrenchLine-500.jpg Voyages 1926 - October 14: Marcel Duchamp takes the Art Deco ocean liner SS Paris from Le Havre to New York for the exhibition that he organized of Brâncuși sculptures. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ee7d7cc2595620a059086f2/1597255678106-EK0CHFXHU5D5FF5LO746/Jay+Leyda-Portrait+Julien+Levy+1932.jpg Voyages 1927 - February 26: Marcel Duchamp returns to France on the SS Paris with art historian and gallery owner Julien Levy (above), who watches Duchamp play chess en route. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ee7d7cc2595620a059086f2/1596587116484-KHL95M8BZ48ER3A50KPA/Paquebot_Ile_de_France-en_navigation.jpg Voyages 1933 - July 12–23: Marcel Duchamp plays in the Fifth Chess Olympiad, in Folkestone, England, where he is photographed. October 25: He leaves for New York on the SS Ile de France returning the follow year on January 20, 1934, to France with Julien Levy aboard Le Champlain. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ee7d7cc2595620a059086f2/1596588133650-9N6NS42V536NROVEKYQW/partida-ajedrez-Flohr-Koltanowski.jpg Voyages 1935- Koltanowski playing against Salo Flohr in Barcelona, Spain, where he became the teacher for the Barcelona Chess Club. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ee7d7cc2595620a059086f2/1596588340999-6BSBCUY47LL297LRKYF4/Orwell+in+Spanish+Civil+War.jpg Voyages 1935 - July 17: The Spanish Civil War breaks out in Madrid, Spain. George Koltanowski escapes via the last train to Valencia, and from there by English warships to Marseilles, France. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ee7d7cc2595620a059086f2/1596587258392-Q93PFGH1IL06AYB1L7KJ/Normandie.jpg Voyages 1936 - May 20: Marcel Duchamp leaves for New York on the SS Normandie- also see above in the first image of the Voyages page. On September 2, he again boards the Normandie to return to Paris. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ee7d7cc2595620a059086f2/1596588727395-MZ54Z30UHWUXP8W5G0XH/SS+Duchess+of+Atholl_800_witheridgefhsRWB.jpg Voyages 1938 - September 3: George Koltanowski and his first wife, Céline, arrive in Québec, Canada on the SS Duchess Atholl, having left Antwerp on July 26, for Québec via Liverpool. Thus began George's long North American tour. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ee7d7cc2595620a059086f2/1596589257476-BXU7PNL63QHPD3XTQWIL/SS+Antigua+United+Fruit+Co.jpg Voyages 1939 - George Koltanowski plays chess throughout North, Central and South America, including stops in New York, the Midwest, California and much of Canada. He travels by United Fruit banana boat from Florida to Cuba and the Caribbean. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ee7d7cc2595620a059086f2/1597255845344-FTR1MXGRFZ5311M4IZLL/florida001.jpg Voyages 1940 – May 6: Koltanowski's chess skills allied to his amazing recall attracted the attention of the US consul in Havana, who offered to seek a visa for George that would allow him to settle in the USA, so that he would be neither a refugee nor stateless. He journeys from Havana to Miami on the SS Florida, seen here. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ee7d7cc2595620a059086f2/1596589517336-RVST8CTA02EJJYATGJK7/Marechal+Lyautey+carte-postale-ancienne-transports-navires-et-bateaux-maroc-courrier-marechal-lyautey-a-casablanca.jpg Voyages 1942 - May 14: Thanks to the efforts of Varian Fry and the Emergency Rescue Committee, Marcel Duchamp escapes to New York from Nazi-occupied France aboard a beat-up former hospital boat, the Maréchal Lyautey. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ee7d7cc2595620a059086f2/1597410782400-V4VQOAA5GME6IR4JM54Q/Andres+Gomes-Duchamp.jpg Voyages 1942 - Finally leaving Europe, Marcel Duchamp waves wildly from onboard a ship taking him from Marseille. He was accompanied to the quay by André Gomes (who shot this photograph) and Henriette Gomes, and the Romanian artist Victor Brauner seen at the left. Marcel is the small figure with raised arms in the center background. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ee7d7cc2595620a059086f2/1596158496836-TBX75X80EI674LDSPWU8/The+Serpa+Pinta+fin.JPG Voyages 1942 - June 7: Marcel Duchamp boards the Portuguese ship the Serpa Pinto, leaving from Lisbon to New York. It carries refugees and over 50 children escaping the War in Europe, arriving June 25, 1942. https://www.duchampspipe.com/credits-contact daily 0.75 2022-08-29 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ee7d7cc2595620a059086f2/1603819173221-OTWK65W8FU3IHQATXO7U/MAC_Logo_Colour-Hori.png Credits & Contact https://www.duchampspipe.com/news-reviews daily 0.75 2025-10-17 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ee7d7cc2595620a059086f2/6883d164-4314-42ec-866e-f9d28eec4642/VA-Shortlist-1840x897.jpg News & Reviews - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ee7d7cc2595620a059086f2/51b1742f-a59d-40bb-b929-0fab5a400217/Rabinovitch+Book+Launch+-jpg.jpg News & Reviews - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ee7d7cc2595620a059086f2/e71a34d7-265e-4dcc-bbcf-60a9f43b6697/Screenshot+2025-10-17+062632.png News & Reviews - Make it stand out Read the Full Article Here https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ee7d7cc2595620a059086f2/1605307876079-6MVR9LJL9NGAIE7WE71C/e6713dff-bf67-4d17-99f9-994db2e9b280.png News & Reviews https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ee7d7cc2595620a059086f2/213923a5-fae3-410e-a424-fbca5c8d8651/Pipecoversplash.jpg News & Reviews - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.