Marcel Duchamp Essay Research Paper Matt GilesMuseum

Marcel Duchamp Essay, Research Paper

Matt Giles

Museum Project

Duchamp Stripped Bare, Even

Marcel Duchamp was born on July 28, 1887; thus, began the life of one of the most famous of the Cubists, Dadaists, and ready-made artists (Paz, 181). His work was important because of his love of new and different taking art in a new direction each time he created. I force myself to contradict myself so as to avoid conforming to my own taste (duchamps-children.fsnet). This explains his attempts at different types of art, hoping never to create something in different form he had already made. He wrote that the great trouble with art in this country is that there is no spirit of revolt no new ideas appearing among the young artists (Duchamp, Writings). With this ideal of what makes art he changed and reformed the idea of art.

Duchamp s paintings were an exercise in ideas I mean this to say that he was a painter of ideas. His paintings were a reflection of ideas; he did not seek to improve upon another s work, for he felt that art could never be perfect. His involvement in art was adaptation. We see this in his sculpture Fountain. Taking an ordinary urinal and turning this into what he would consider art not

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enhanced or improved but changed and different. Fountain went in a completely different direction from what the urinal had originally been used. Also, he created a new definition of art. Art was not just oil on canvas or a sculpture of a young David but also a signature on porcelain accompanied by a title.

Duchamp also focused much on the use of literature in conjunction with a piece. For instance, in the above example, the mind of the spectator is unable to ascertain the ideal that Duchamp is creating unless he reads the title. Octavio Paz demonstrates the use of the title:

[Language] is the most perfect instrument for producing meanings and at the same time destroying them. The pun is a miraculous device because in one and the same phrase we exalt the power of the language to convey meaning only in order, a moment later, to abolish it the more completely (Paz, 5).

Another example of this use of language is the way Duchamp uses language to reflect an idea. Nude Descending a Staircase means nothing without the title; the title makes the idea come alive and reflects Duchamp s fascination with the human form.

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Another trait though that word may seem anachronistic when referring to Duchamp since his life was an example of one ridding himself of any one trait of Duchamp is his flare for movement. To Duchamp, art was not motionless and tactile; art was an expression and flowed from both the creator s idea and the spectator s acceptance; thus, art itself should be flowing. Much of his work reflected this idea of art flowing. Nude Descending a Staircase is one example; Portrait, an earlier version of Nude Descending, is another example. The Bride Stripped Bare by her Bachelors, Even reflects action both in the actual work and in the title, the language. His portraits of people from 1909-11 reflect this theme as well. Many of them show people in the act of doing something the nudes are in the process of removing articles of clothing; the chess players are making a move or planning their next move; Sonata depicts a girl playing a violin as another plays the piano while an older woman watches approvingly. To Duchamp, art was active; art reflected life. Life is not still or immobile but lively and animated.

Possibly, one of the most famous genres of Duchamp s work is his ready-mades. Fountain, Bicycle Wheel, and L.H.O.O.Q. rank among the most famous examples of this

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type. These works were not intended to be given extreme significance but to be accepted as art; their intent is to provoke and challenge the idea of what art is. His idea is not to depreciate the value of a Rembrandt; instead, he tends to establish his own uniqueness by challenging the notions of where and in what value is placed. These ready-mades become examples of art that he did not expect to be immediately accepted by an art world whose selection of what is good reflected what had been accepted in the past. Lebel states Duchamp s view of what can be called art:

The unmitigated artist, as the source of all value, does not need to have his own confirmed by others. He has only to bestow his seal on the objects he has chosen for them to become his work, thanks to this unique laying on of hands (36).

In his ready-mades, we see a most remarkable example of the effect of language on Duchamp. He uses the word Fountain to describe his urinal, and even on his depiction of the Mona Lisa with a mustache, he affixes the title L.H.O.O.Q.

This title, when pronounced in French, sounds like one is saying, She has a hot ass . This play on words demonstrates the value that Duchamp puts on language and

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art. Art can be whatever exists in the mind of the creator. Another interesting point is the relative lack of time that Duchamp put into his ready-mades compared to his greater works.

Duchamp labored in relative obscurity, except among French avant-garde artists, until he produced Nude Descending a Staircase; this work begins his introduction to the world outside of France. Before this, he had presented his works at the Salome d Auto

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