Louise Varèse (French pronunciation:[lwizvaʁɛz];néeMcCutcheon; 20 November 1890 – 1 July 1989), also credited asLouise Norton orLouise Norton-Varèse,[1][2] was an American writer, editor, and translator ofFrench literature who was involved withNew York Dadaism.
Varèse was born Louise McCutcheon inPittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to John Lindsay McCutcheon and Mary Louise Taylor.[1] She attendedSmith College (class of 1912), but left in the fall of 1911 to marryAllen Norton.[1]
Cover ofRogue, April 1, 1915Louise Norton's article onFountain, part 2
Louise Norton's article onFountain, part 1
Varèse founded and edited the modernist magazineRogue (a play off ofVogue) with her then-husband, Allen Norton, from 1915 to 1916.[3] She sometimes wrote under the pseudonym "Dame Rogue".[4] Under this pseudonym, Varèse wrote a fashion column called "Philosophic Fashions".[5] She was also a contributor to theNew York Dada magazineThe Blind Man.[6]
Varèse (then Norton) metMarcel Duchamp in 1915 and became close friends.[2] She was involved in the 1917Society of Independent Artists submission of a urinal under the name R.Mutt known asFountain.[7] She wrote a defense of the work titled "Buddha of the Bathroom" in issue 2 ofThe Blind Man.[8]
Her address also appears on the label ofFountain as seen in theAlfred Stieglitz photograph of the work and her phone number was given as an alternative to Duchamp's as press contact.[7][9] As such, she is a likely candidate for the "female friend" Duchamp mentions in a letter dated 11 April 1917 to his sisterSuzanne: "Une de mes amies sous un pseudonyme masculin, Richard Mutt, avait envoyé une pissotière en porcelaine comme sculpture" ("One of my female friends under a masculine pseudonym, Richard Mutt, sent in a porcelain urinal as a sculpture.").[7][10]
She played an important role in theInternational Composers' Guild,[12] and included material about this organisation in her bookVarèse; a looking-glass diary (1972).[13]
In 1972, she wrote a biography of her late second husband, Edgard Varèse, titled:Varèse: A Looking-Glass Diary.[14] For the exhibitionMarcel Duchamp at thePhiladelphia Museum of Art in 1973, Varèse wrote an essay titled "Marcel Duchamp at Play".[15]
Her first husband was poet and literary editor Allen Norton, the couple had a son, Michael in 1912, separated in 1916, and divorced in 1920. Louise also had a granddaughter, Sylvia Calderwood.[14]
In 1922 she married composerEdgard Varèse; they remained together until his death in 1965.[1]
Norton [Varèse], Louise. "Buddha of the Bathroom",The Blind Man 2. May 1917: 5–6.
Varèse, Louise.Varèse; a looking-glass diary. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1972.ISBN9780393074611
[Norton] Varèse. Louise. "Marcel Duchamp at Play", inMarcel Duchamp, ed. Anne d'Harnoncourt and Kynaston McShine. New York: Museum of Modern Art; Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art. 1973; rpt. 1989. 224–225.ISBN9780876330432
^Bochner, Jay (2007). "The Marriage ofRogue andThe Soil".Little Magazines and Modernism: New Approaches. Burlington, Vermont: Ashgate Publishing. pp. 49–66.
^"Rogue".Index of Modernist Magazines. 2016-06-21. Retrieved2019-03-01.
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