Tulip Hysteria Co-ordinating is Not a Rumor.

This project argues that the long-missing Duchamp painting survived, and that it is the work signed “..Morée…”—the concealed middle term between
Nude Descending a Staircase No. 2 and Nude Descending a Staircase No. 3.

Why This Matters

For more than a century, the absence of any surviving work securely identified as Tulip Hysteria Co-ordinating has encouraged the belief that the title referred only to rumor, press mischief, or one more Duchampian joke. This research begins from a different premise: a work absent from the record is not necessarily a work that never existed.

Duchamp’s career gives no reason to rule out concealment. Étant donnés remained hidden for two decades. The question is not whether concealment is possible, but whether a surviving object occupies the place long held open by the title Tulip Hysteria Co-ordinating.

The Claim

I believe that object exists, and that it is the painting first described under the provisional name Morée, taken from the punctuated inscription along its lower edge: “..Morée…”.

That inscription is not merely a label. The two dots before and three after place the painting structurally between Nude No. 2 and Nude No. 3, with Morée occupying the interval. Once the painting is read in relation to the two Nudes, the 1916 readymades, the 1917 Independents episode, and the coded writing in The Blind Man, it ceases to be an isolated curiosity. It becomes the co-ordinating core of a larger structure.

What This Site Contains

• A concise introduction to the identification of Morée as Tulip Hysteria Co-ordinating
• The broader argument connecting the painting to Fountain, The Blind Man, and the referential readymades
• The open-access monograph After the Retrospective
• Ongoing research, updates, and supporting material

Conclusion

It is not a rumor. It is not a joke.
It is the co-ordinating core.