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Marcel Duchamp

On this page:  intro
               {Chronology}
               {Marcel's 'readymades speech'}

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Chronology


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Stuff

Duchamp is arguably the first artist of the 21st century.

Quite a statement about a man who was well known to have
"made his reputation by producing one of the smallest
bodies of work"  ??author??

Actually, as time went on, he made less and less art, played
chess more, and probably inspired more modern artists than 
any other artist in recent times (ok, we could argue about
Andy Warhol until the cows start painting lovely landscapes
- according to cartoonist Gary Larsen, they are into more
realism and surrealism than anything else; or so i've herad).

START AGAIN

When Marcel entered his "fountain" and "nude descending a staircase"
and they were rejected, this was a major starting point of new art.

The Fountain was considered a joke; perhaps it was. But, he had
(like Picasso and Braque just a few years before) the power that
any art has, because it has "the hand of the artist" to sanctify
it, as well as the expectation of art being something in an 
"art space"; eg, museum, gallery, on a wall, etc. 

But, the Nude Descending was of a more serious nature in its 
rejection. It was clearly in the cubist tradition (as young
as the tradtion was at the time); ie, it embraces not only
the "multiple views of an object" (at a given moment in time,
in the way that traditional sculpture does - we can walk around
the art work and get different things from each view; rarely
taking the chance to view it from below (eg, many of the 
"niche" statues of Donnatello, etc) or from above).

It also exhibited the important feature of "freezing time"
in a painting, which is what photography had being doing for
almost a century. Look at the paintings of Degas and others
as they began to paint scenes in a photo realistic style,
as if they were taken with a camera. Also, almost every
artist experimented with cameras and contributed importantly
to the aesthetics of that young "art/science".

Of, course, offering Duchamp the chance to simply change the
title (ie, the "nude" business, not many people object to
"staircases" unless, they have gout, a peg leg, etc ;) - only
served to offend him even more.

And now...

Constrating of types and Duchamp's works

There are at least two "atomic aspects" of found objects
that Marcel clearly brought to the forefront.

The object as craft/art. As i have said before, if we take
a photo of an assembly line where the urinals are made. We
have created a "document"; ie, the documentary process, much
the same as *that* photo Helen Frankenthaler "stalking" across
in front of her paintings. Is that art?

But, if we wait for the light to be just so, to capture the
gleem of the urinals on the assembly line, and take the photos
and then work for hours in the dark room (or similarly with
paintshop soft/ware, etc), then it is art; right?

But, notice that the urinal (i would say) at the moment that
Marcel came up with the idea and of course, when he chose or
ordered the specific one - it became art. Compare this with
the work of the sculptor Richard Sierra whose very large scale
metal sculptures often require others to do the work. Even if
he doesn't touch the metal at all (only sending emails, specification,
etc to the foundary, the museum, etc) it is still his art.
And what of Jeff Koons who commisions others to create art?

Of course in the arena of film, we know that in many cases,
we attribute THE FILM to the director, star, etc. But, these
days, many, many people go into the making of the film. In
the case of Babylon Five", the phrase "The name of the place
is Babylon Five" (as other "behind the scenes" contributions,
earned the title of "creative consultant" for "Demon With 
the Glass Hand" ??author??

And we have two other things to think about:

1) Marcel chooses the urinal, makes the artistic choice to
   display it in a most unusual manner; evoking over 5_000
   (50_000? Woman of Willendorf) years of art history.

2) Names it appropriate to its attriutes; in a manner of
   speaking it IS a fountain.

And then:

"The Snow Shovel", simply labeled "In anticipation of 
the Broken Arm".

I would say that these accomplishments alone deserve some
serious study and contemplation; or you can go watch some
reality TV show that in reality is all staged. After all,
you don't *really* think they're going to let celebrities
get in real danger do you? Now a manta ray is unbelievably
terrifying, and i'm frightented by sea urchins which are
much smaller.

Meanwhile,

  "Pharmacy" i maintain to be one of the most beautiful
             works of all time; especially, these days
  when everything from ED to diet to hair loss, etc is
  to be treated with pills.

  "The Rotating Glass" has much more that (as Will Insley
                       reminds us) can be investigated.
  So, is that sculpture or painting? Why does it matter?

  "The Large Glass" could yield any number of tribute works.

  And then of course, don't forget to find out WHO helped
  with the set for Marcel's chess game and other works.

Well, that's it for now. email soonest with any serious
                         ideas/comments/discussion (not
that i guarantee to be able to get past king's pawn to
king's pawn four ;).
                        fleeding@hotmail.com



On Readymades

   extracted from Richard Kostelenitz' "Modern Esthetics"
   published by the fine folks at Promethius Books.

   Marcel Duchamp: Apropos of "Readymades"
   Speech by Duchamp at the MOMA, 1961 October 19.

IN 1913 I HAD THE HAPPY IDEA TO FASTEN A BICYCLE WHEEL TO
A KITCHEN STOOL AND WATCH IT TURN.
    A FEW MONTHS LATER I BOUGHT A CHEAP REPORDUCTION
OF A WINTER EVENING LANDSCAPE, WHICH I CALLED 
"PHARMACY "AFTER ADDING TWO SMALL DOTS, ONE RED AND
ONE YELLOW, IN THE HORIZON.
    IN NEW YORK IN 1915 I BOUGHT AT A HARDWARE STORE A
SNOW SHOVEL ON WHICH I WROTE "IN ADVANCE OF THE 
BROKEN ARM".
    IT WAS AROUND THAT TIME THAT THE WORD "READYMADE"
CAME TO MIND TO DESIGNATE THIS FORM OF MANIFESTATION.
    A POINT WHICH I WANT VERFY MUCH TO ESTABLISH IS THAT
THE CHOICE OF THESE "READYMADES" WAS NEVER DICTATED
BY ESTHETIC DELECTATION.
    THIS CHOICE WAS BASED ON A REACTION OF VISUAL INDIF-
FERENCE WITH AT THE SAME TIME A TOTAL ABSENCE OF GOOD
OR BAD TASTS.  IN FACT A COMPLETE ANESTHESIA.  
     ONE IMPORTANT CHARACTERISTIC WAS THE SHORT SEN-
TENCE WHICH I OCCASIONALLY INSCRIBED ON THE "READY-
MADE".

    THAT SENTENCE INSTEAD OF DESCRIBING THE OBJECT LIKE
A TITLE WAS MEANT TO CARRY THE MIND OF THE SPECTATOR
TOWARDS OTHER REGIONS MORE VERBAL.
    SOMETIMES I WOULD ADD A GRAPHIC DETAIL OF PRESEN-
TATION WHICH IN ORDER TO SATISFY MY CRAVING FOR 
ALLITERATIONS, WOULD BE CALLED "READYMADE AIDED".
    AT ANOTHER TIME WANTING TO EXPOSE THE BASIC ANTI-
NOMY BETWEEN ART AND READYMADES I IMAGINED A "RECIP-
ROCAL READYMADE": USE A REMBRANDT AS AN IRONING 
BOARD!
    I REALISED VERY SOON THE DANGER OF REPEATINGB INDIS-
CRIMINATELY THIS FORM OF EXPRESSION AND DECIDED TO 
LIMIT THE PRODUCTION OF "READYMADES" TO A SMALL NUM-
BER YEARLY. I WAS AWARE AT THAT TIME, THAT FOR THE
SPECTATOR EVEN MORE THAN FOR THE ARTIST, ART IS A HABIT-
FORMING DRUG AND I WANTED TO PROTECT MY "READY-
MADES" AGAINST SUCH CONTAMINATION.
    ANOTHER ASPECT OF THE "READYMADE" IS ITS LACK OF
UNIQUENESS ... THE REPLICA OF A "READYMADE" DELIVERING
THE SAME MESSAGE; IN FACT NEARLY EVERY ONE OF THE 
"READYMADES" EXISTING TODAY IS NOT AN ORIGINAL IN THE
CONVENTIONAL SENSE.
     A FINAL REMARK TO THE EGOMANICAC'S DISCOURSE:
    SINCE THE TUBES OF PAINT USED BY THE ARTIST ARE
MANUFACTURED, AND READY MADE PRODUCTS WE MUST 
CONCLUDE THAT ALL THE PAINTINGS IN THE WORLD ARE
"READYMADES AIDED" AND ALSO WORKS OF ASSEMBLAGE.

(note, this makes an *excellent* performance text !!! ;)

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