Usine de Mes Pensées 1920

Suzanne Duchamp made this watercolor, “Usine de Mes Pensées,” which translates to “Factory of My Thoughts,” with what looks like a playful yet precise hand. The way she's laid down these thin washes of color, it's almost like she's constructing a thought in real-time. The paint isn't trying to hide itself; it's right there on the surface, doing its thing. It’s a little like looking at a blueprint for a dream. There’s something about the grid in the foreground and how it leads your eye into the heart of the factory, or rather, the mind. Each line, each shape, feels deliberate, like a carefully chosen word in a poem. And that title, “Factory of My Thoughts,” suggests that thoughts aren't just things that happen, but things that are made, constructed, and produced. It reminds me a bit of Picabia, who was also playing with machine imagery, but with Duchamp, there's a lightness, a kind of gentle humor. It's like she's winking at us, inviting us to consider the absurdity and the beauty of our own internal factories.