Social Circuitry: Mary, Marcel and their Circle of Friends

The talk explores the romantic and creative collaboration between Marcel Duchamp and Mary Reynolds, a bookbinder, friend to many Surrealists, View magazine editor, and member of the French resistance. Reynolds and Duchamp were at the center of a wide ranging circle of artists that also included Constantine Brancusi, Alexander Calder, Andre Breton, Janet Flanner, and Samuel Beckett. She was recently featured in “Frida Kahlo’s Month in Paris: A Friendship with Mary Reynolds” at the Art Institute of Chicago (2025). This presentation looks at friendship as a form of social circuitry, a uniquely personal, material, and cultural affirmation linking artists to each other.