MARCEL DUCHAMP, quotes and statements on his ready-made art and life facts by the French / American artist
Marcel Duchamp (1887 – 1968), his artist quotes on ready-made art, Dada and Surrealism and his artistic life in France and America. Duchamp as a young French Dada-artist got early involved in French Surrealism in Paris. He became famous for his new art concept of ‘ready-made’, like his art-works ‘Fountain’, ‘Bicycle Wheel’, Bottle Rack, Urinal and ‘Fresh Widow’. Duchamp had strong influence on later American artists in Pop art Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, and the German Fluxus artist Joseph Beuys. Many quotes of Duchamp are taken from letters and his famous lecture ‘The Creative Act’ in 1957.
* At the bottom are useful art links for biography facts & images of the ready made art of the famous artist Marcel Duchamp. – the editor
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Marcel Duchamp: ‘Box in a suitcase’
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Marcel Duchamp, quotes, art statements & memories on ready-made & Surrealism
– ‘People talk of Picasso as the leader of the Cubists but, strictly speaking, he is no longer a Cubist. Today he is a Cubist, tomorrow he will be something else. The only true Cubists are Gleizes and Metzinger.’
* Marcel Duchamp, artist quote on Cubism and Picasso, from ‘A complete reversal of opinions on art’, Marcel Duchamp, in ‘Art and Decoration, New York, 1 September 1915 (French artist in Dada, later in French Surrealism and writer of ‘The Creative Act’, famous for his ready-mades and art works, like ’Fountain, Bicycle Wheel, Urinal, Bottle Rack, The Green Boxes’; more detailed biography facts at the bottom of the page)
– ‘My brother (the artists Duchamp-Villon, fh) had a kitchen in his little house in Puteaux, and he had the idea of decorating it with pictures by his buddies. He asked Gleizes, Metzinger, La Fresnaye, and I think Léger (all Cubist painters, fh) to do some little paintings of the same size, like a sort of frieze. He asked me too, and I painted a coffee grinder which I made to explode.’
(on the painting ‘Moulin a café’, 1911, many times reproduced from the lithography made for the 1947 re-edition of Gleizes and Metzingers book ‘Du Cubisme’, fh)
* his artist quote on the origin of his early famous painting ‘Moulin a café’, in: ‘Entretiens avec Marcel Duchamp’, 1965; as quoted in “Futurism”, ed. By Didier Ottinger; Centre Pompidou / 5 Continents Editions, Milan, 2008, p. 198
– ‘..I am not going to New york, I am leaving Paris. That’s quite different. Long before the war (first World War, ed.), I already had a distaste for the ‘artistic life’ I was involved in. – It’s quite the opposite of what I’m looking for. – And so I tried, through the Library, to escape from artists somewhat. Then, with the war, my incompatibility with this milieu grew. I wanted to go away at all costs. Where to? My only option was New York where I knew you (Walter Pach, artist and friend of Duchamp, ed.) and where I hope to be able to escape leading the artistic life, if needs be through a job which will keep me very busy. I ask you to keep all this from my brothers (all his brothers were artists as well, ed.) because I know my leaving will be very painful for them. – the same goes for my father and sisters.’
* Duchamp’s artist quote on leaving France for New York, in: a letter to Walter Pach, Paris 27 April 1915; as quoted in The Duchamp Book, ed. Gavin Parkinson, Tate Publishing, London 2008 p. 157
– ‘I have impressed upon you my preoccupation with earning money so as to have a secure existence over there. That’s the way it have to be… …I am very happy to hear that you (Walter Pach, ed.) sold these canvasses for me and thank you very sincerely for your friendship. But I am afraid of getting to the stage of needing to sell canvases, In a word, of being a painter for a living. – So I’ll be leaving probably on the 22nd or rather 29th May (1915, ed.), if the police authorities allow me to take the steamer.’
* his quote, announcing his departure from France in 1915, in: a letter to Walter Pach, Paris 27 April 1915; as quoted in The Duchamp Book, ed. Gavin Parkinson, Tate Publishing, London 2008 p. 157
– ‘Now, if you (his sister, Suzanne Duchamp, ed.) have been up to my place, you will have seen, in the studio, (his former studio in France, probably in Paris, ed.) a bicycle wheel and a bottle rack. – I bought this as a ready-made sculpture [sculpture tout faite]. And I h have a plan concerning this so-called bottle rack. Listen to this. Here in N.Y., I have bought various objects in the same taste and I treat them as ‘ready-mades’. You know enough English to understand the meaning of ‘readymade [tour fait] that I give these objects. – I sign them and think of an inscription for them in English. I’ll give you a few examples. I have, for example, a large snow shovel on which I have inscribed at the bottom: In advance of the broken arm, French translation: En avance dus bras cassé – Don’t tear your hair out trying to understand this in the Romantic or impressionist or Cubist sense – it has nothing to do with all that. Another ‘readymade’ is called: Emergency in favour of twice possible French translation: Danger \Crise \en favour de 2 fois. This long preamble just to say: Take this bottle rack for yourself. I’m making it a ‘readymade’ remotely. You are to inscribe it at the bottom and on the inside of the bottom circle, in small letters painted with a brush in oil, silver white colour, with an inscription which I will give you herewith, and then sign it, in the same handwriting, as follows:
[after] Marcel Duchamp.’
* Marcel Duchamp, artist quote with instructions on his early ready-made art, still made in France, the famous ‘Bicycle Wheel and a Bottle Rack’, in a: letter to his sister Suzanne Duchamp, New York, c. 15 January 1916; as quoted in The Duchamp Book, ed. Gavin Parkinson, Tate Publishing, London 2008 pp. 157-158
– ‘They say any artist paying six dollars may exhibit
Mr. Richard Mutt (inscription written by Duchamp, ed.) sent in a fountain. Without discussion this article disappeared and never was exhibited.
What were the grounds for refusing Mr. Mutt’s fountain: –
1. Some contented it was immoral, vulgar.
2. Others, it was plagiarism, ac plain piece of plumbing.
Now, Mr. Mutt’s fountain is not immoral, that is absurd, no more than a bith tube is immoral. It is a fixture that you see every day in plumber’s show windows.
Whether Mr. Mutt with his own hands made this fountain or not has no importance. He CHOSE it. He took an ordinary article of life, placed it so that’s its useful significance disappeared under the new title (‘The Richard Mutt Case’, ed.) and point of view – created a new thought for that object.
As for plumbing, that is absurd. The only works of art America has given are her plumbing and her bridges.’ (1917)
* Duchamp’s core artist quote on The Fountain, from : his own written comment on his artwork ‘The Fountain’: The Richard Mutt Case, Marcel Duchamp, ‘Blind Man’, New York, 1917: 5; in “Theories and Documents of Contemporary Art, – a source-book of Artist’s writings”, ed. Kristine Stiles / Peter Selz, University of California Press, London, England, 1996, p. 817
– ‘To be looked at (from the other side of The Glass) with one eye, close to, for almost an hour.’
* short artist statement from his art-work The Glass: an inscription in French title, translated – instruction of his artwork, 1918; quote from “Looking at Dada” ed. Sarah Blyth / Edward Powers, MoMa museum, New York 2006, p. 13
– ‘I have been wanting to write to you for some time, but never have time, so absorbed I am in playing chess. I play night and day and nothing in the whole world interests me more than finding the right move…. … Nothing transcendental going on here – strikes (in Buenos Aires chess competitions were organized that year for not proffesionals, ed.) a lot of strikes, the people are on the move. Painting interests me less and less.’
* his quote on chess as a life quote, in a: letter to the Stettheimers family from New York, Buenos Aires 3 Mai 1919; as quoted in The Duchamp Book, ed. Gavin Parkinson, Tate Publishing, London 2008 p. 159
– ‘You (Katherine S. Dreier; director of the Art Center in New York City; she co-founded with Duchamp and Man Ray the Sociéte Anonyme’ in Manhattan in 1920, ed.) must understand:
My attitude toward the book is based upon my attitude towards ‘Art’ since 1918 – so I am furious myself that you will accept only partly that attitude (in a new publication ed.) It can be no more question of my life as an artist’s life: (because, ed.) I gave it up ten years ago; this period is long enough to prove that my intention to remain outside of any art manifestation is permanent….
….The third question is that I want to be alone as much as possible.
This abrupt way to speak of my ‘hardening process’ is not meant to be mean, but is the result of ’42 years of age’… …10 000 apologies for this rough letter and affectueusement
Dee -‘
* his artist quote on a new publication of the Duchamp Book, (referring to his famous art-Silence, probably, f.h.), in a: letter to Katherine S. Dreier, Paris 11 September 1929; as quoted in The Duchamp Book, ed. Gavin Parkinson, Tate Publishing, London 2008 p. 158
– ‘..de Chirico (Italian painter, ed.) found himself in 1912 confronted with the problem of following one of the roads already opened or of opening a new road. He avoided Fauvism as well as Cubism and introduced what could be called ‘metaphysical painting’. Instead of exploiting the coming medium of abstraction, he organized on his canvases the meeting of elements which could only meet in a ‘metaphysical world’. These elements, painted in the minutest technique, were ‘exposed’ on a horizontal plane in orthodox perspective. This technique, in opposition to the Cubist or the purely abstract formula in full bloom at the moment, protected de Chirico’s position and allowed him to lay down the foundation of what was to become Surrealism ten years later.’
* his art statement on the position of the created painting art of the famous Italian artist De Chirico, in relation to Cubism and Fauvism. De Chirico was seen as the founder of the art movement Surrealism by Duchamp: from ‘Appreciations of other artists’: Giorgio de Chirico (painter, writer, illustrator) 1943, by Marcel Duchamp; as quoted in “Catalog, Collection of the Societé Anonyme”, eds. Michel Sanouillet / Elmer Peterson, London 1975, pp. 143- 159
– ‘The Dada movement was an anti-movement which corresponded to a need born of the first World War. Although neither literary nor pictorial in essence, Dada found its exponents in painters and writers scattered all over the world. Max Ernst’s activities in Cologne in 1917 made him the foremost representative of the Dada painters. Between 1919 and 1921 his paintings, drawings and collages depicting the world of the subconscious were already a foretaste of …Surrealism. … In fact his previous achievements had certainly influenced, to a great extent, the literary Surrealist exploration of the subconscious.’
* art statement on Dada and the foremost representative of the Dada artists in Germany, from: ‘Appreciations of other artists’: Max Ernst (German Dada painter, sculptor, author, fh) 1945, by Marcel Duchamp; as quoted in “Catalog, Collection of the Societé Anonyme”, eds. Michel Sanouillet / Elmer Peterson, London 1975, pp. 143- 159
– … Miró came of age as an artist just at the time World War 1 ended. With the end of the war came the end of all the new pre-war art conceptions. A young painter could not start as a Cubist or a Futurist, and Dada was the only manifestation at the moment. Miro began by painting farm scenes from the countryside of Barcelona, his native land. … …A few years later he came to Paris and found himself among the Dadaists who were, at that time, transmuting into Surrealism. In spite of this contact Miró kept aloof from any direct influence and showed a series of canvases in which form submitted to strong colouring expressed a new two-dimensional cosmogony, in no way related to abstraction.
* his artist quote on the famous Surrealist Spanish painter Joan Miro who came to Paris c. 1914 en joined there Dada movement and later Surrealism, more or less, from ‘Appreciations of other artists’: Joan Miró (painter) 1946, by Marcel Duchamp; as quoted in “Catalog, Collection of the Societé Anonyme”, eds. Michel Sanouillet / Elmer Peterson, London 1975, pp. 143- 159
– …Yes, indeed, what have we been up to? I feel rather like I’ve retired to the country, in some remote province, for that’s what my life is like in N. Y. I see few people and people don’t try to see me anymore as they know they bore me. I write to the Arensbergs once a year and they do the same. There is a general weariness which, I think, is not confined to our generation. To tell the truth, most people prefer war to peace…. …….Well, there you are, my dear Yvonne. Nothing as usual. Chess as much as possible: at least chess players don’t talk -…
* artist quote on daily life in 1949, how he felt without creating any art and playing a lot of chess, in: letter to Yvonne Chastel, New York 8 January 1949; as quoted in The Duchamp Book, ed. Gavin Parkinson, Tate Publishing, London 2008 p. 159
– Based on the metaphysical implications of the Dadaist dogma, … Arp’s Reliefs between 1916 and 1922 are among the most convincing illustrations of that anti- rationalistic era… …Arp showed the importance of a smile to combat the sophistic theories of the moment. His poems of the same period stripped the word of its rational connotation to attain the most unexpected meaning through alliteration or plain nonsense.
* quote and appreciation of the reliefs made by famous Dada-artist Hans Arp, as convincing illustrations of the anti- rationalistic era: from ‘Appreciations of other artists’: Jean (Hans) Arp (Dada sculptor, painter, writer), 1949, by Marcel Duchamp; as quoted in “Catalog, Collection of the Societé Anonyme”, eds. Michel Sanouillet / Elmer Peterson, London 1975, pp. 143- 159
– Received your letter and, almost at the same time, the long text at which I was overjoyed. You no doubt know that you are the only person in the world to have put together the gestation of the glass (The Large Glass, c. 1923) in all its detail, including even the numerous intentions which were never executed (by Duchamp, ed.). Your patient work has enabled me to relive a period of long years during which the notes were written for the Green Box ( the second of the three Boxes Duchamp created and this one was full of written notes, ed.) at the same time as the glass was taking shape. And I confess to you that, not having read these notes for a very long time, I had completely lost all recollection of numerous points not illustrated on the glass and which are a delight to me now ( c. 25 years later, ed.)
* his quote on a written text on his creations ‘The Large Glass’ and the ‘Green Boxes’, in a: letter to Jean Suquet (art historian), New York 25 December 1949; as quoted in The Duchamp Book, ed. Gavin Parkinson, Tate Publishing, London 2008 p. 159
– Another important point which you so very accurately sensed concerns the idea that the glass in actual fact is not meant to be looked at (with ‘aesthetic’ eyes). It should be accompanied by a ‘literary’ text, as amorphous as possible, which never took shape. And the two elements, glass for the eyes, text for the ears and understanding, should complement each other and above all prevent one or the other from taking on an aesthetic-plastic or literary form. All in all, I am hugely indebted to you for having stripped bare my Bride stripped bare ( the complete title is: The Bride Stripped Bare by her Bachelors, Even (The Large Glass) c. 1915 – 1923, ed.).
* source of his explaining artist quote on ‘The Large Glass’, how to present it to the visitors, in : letter to Jean Suquet (art historian), New York 25 December 1949; as quoted in The Duchamp Book, ed. Gavin Parkinson, Tate Publishing, London 2008 p.
– You were asking my opinion on your work of art, my dear Jean… …Artists throughout the ages are like Monte Carlo gamblers and the blind lottery pulls some of them through and ruin others… …I do not believe in painting per se – A painting is made not by the artist but by those who look at it and grant it their favours. In other words, no painters knows himself or what he is doing – There is no outward sign explaining why a Fra Angelico and a Leonardo are equally ‘recognized’. It all takes place at the level of our old friend luck.
* his famous core art comment on the relation between the artwork and the appraisal by the people: Luck!: letter to Jean Crotti (his brother-in-law) and his sister Suzanne Duchamp, New York 17 Augustus 1952; as quoted in The Duchamp Book, ed. Gavin Parkinson, Tate Publishing, London 2008 p. 159
– This long preamble just to tell you not to judge your own work as you are the last person to see it (with true eyes) – What you see neither redeems nor condemns it – All words used to explain or praise it are false translations of what is going on beyond sensations.
You are, as we all are, obsessed by the accumulation of principles or anti-principles which generally cloud your mind with their terminology and, without knowing it, you are a prisoner of what you think is a liberated education –
In your particular case, you are certainly the victim of the ‘Ecole de Paris’, a joke that’s lasted for 60 years…
* Marcel Duchamp’s quote on the art-principles and its damage for creation of art, in a: letter to Jean Crotti (his brother-in-law) and his sister Suzanne, New York 17 August 1952; as quoted in The Duchamp Book, ed. Gavin Parkinson, Tate Publishing, London 2008 p. 159
– So if I say you that your paintings have nothing in common with what we see generally classified and accepted, anf that you have always managed to produce things that were entirely your own work, as I truly see it, that does not mean you have the right to be seated next to Leonardo –
What’s more, this originality is suicidal as it distances you from a ‘clientele’ used to ‘copies of copiers’, often referred to as ‘tradition’-
One more thing, your technique is not the ‘expected’ technique – It’s your own personal technique, borrowed from nobody – and there again, this doesn’t attract the clientele… …In a word, do less self-analysis and enjoy your work without worrying about opinions, your own as well as that of others…
* artist quote on the uselessness of self-reflection and – analysis as an creating artist, in a: letter to Jean Crotti (his brother-in-law) and his sister Suzanne, New York 17 Augustus 1952; as quoted in The Duchamp Book, ed. Gavin Parkinson, Tate Publishing, London 2008 p. 159
– I am a great enemy of critical writing as all I see in these interpretations and comparisons with Kafka and others is just an opportunity to open up the floodgates of words which, overall, amounts to Carrouges or at times a translation of Carrouges – very free to makes his ideas look good. Obviously any work of art or literature, in the public domain, is automatically the subject ot the victim of such transformations – and this is not just confined to the case of Carrouges. Every fifty years, El Greco is revised and adapted to the taste of the day, either overrated or underrated. The same goes for all surviving works of art. And this leads me to say that a work of art is made entirely by those who look at it or read it and make it survive by their acclaim or even their condemnation.
* his critical note on art-critics as being useless for enjoying art, in a: letter to Jean Mayoux (Surrealist), New York 8 March 1956; as quoted in The Duchamp Book, ed. Gavin Parkinson, Tate Publishing, London 2008 p. 159
– Let us consider two important factors, the two poles of the creation of art: the artist on one hand, and on the other the spectator who later becomes the posterity.
To all appearances the artist acts like a mediumistic being who, from the labyrinth beyond time and space, seeks his way out to a clearing.
* a core artist quote of Marcel Duchamp, on the relation between the artist on one hand, and the spectator: ‘The Creative Act’, 1957, Duchamp’s lecture in Houston, April 1957, in Art News, 56. no. 4, Summer 1957, p. 28 –29
– If we give the attributes of a medium to the artist, we must then deny him the state of consciousness on the aesthetic plane about what he is doing or why he is doing it. All this decisions in the artistic execution of the work rest with pure intuition and cannot be translated into a self-analysis, spoken or written, or even thought out.
* his critical comment on avoiding self-analysis by the creating artist, because of the strong source of intuition, in: ‘The Creative Act’, 1957, Duchamp’s famous lecture in Houston, April 1957, in Art News, 56. no. 4, Summer 1957, p. 28 –29
– Millions of artist create; only a few thousands are discussed or accepted by the spectator and many less again are consecrated by posterity.
In the last analysis, the artist may shout from all the rooftops that he is a genius; he will have to wait for the verdict of the spectator in order that his declarations take a social value and that, finally posterity include him in the primers of Art history.
I know that this statement will not meet with the approval of many artists who refuse this mediumistic role and insist on the validity of their awareness in the creative act…
* artist quote on the important mediumistic role of the spectator in the historical appraisal of art, in : ‘The Creative Act’, 1957, Duchamp’s lecture in Houston, April 1957, in Art News, 56. no. 4, Summer 1957, p. 28 –29
– I want to clarify our understanding of the word ‘art’ – to be sure, without an attempt to a definition.
What I have in mind is that art may be bad, good or indifferent, but, whatever adjective is used, we must call it art, and bad art is still art in the same way as a bad emotion is still an emotion.
Therefore, when I refer to ‘art coefficient’, it will be understood that I refer not only to great art, but I am trying to describe the subjective mechanism which produces art in a raw state – ’à l’état brute’ – bad, good or indifferent.
* Marcel Duchamp’s quote in defining art in the most broadest sense, in : ‘The Creative Act’, 1957, his famous lecture in Houston, April 1957, in ArtNews, 56. no. 4, Summer 1957, p. 28 –29
– In the creative act, the artist goes from intention to realization through a chain of totally subjective reactions. His struggle towards the realization is a series of efforts, pains, satisfactions, refusals, decisions, which also cannot be fully self-conscious, at least on the esthetic plane. The result of his struggle is a difference between the intention and its realization, a difference which the artist is not aware of.
* Marcel Duchamp’s famous quote on the creative act by the artist, in his famous lecture : ‘The Creative Act’, 1957, in Houston, April 1957, in ArtNews, 56. no. 4, Summer 1957, p. 28 –29
– Consequently, in the chain of reactions accompanying the creative act, a link is missing. This gap which represents the inability of the artist to express fully his intention, this difference between what he intended to realize and did realize, is the personal ‘art coefficient’, contained in the work.
* his artist quote on the act of creation, in: ‘The Creative Act’, 1957, Duchamp’s lecture in Houston, April 1957, in ArtNews, 56. no. 4, Summer 1957, p. 28 –29
– …we must remember that this ‘art coefficient’ is a personal expression of art ’à l’état brute’, that is, still in a raw state, which must be ‘refined’ as pure sugar from molasses, by the spectator; the digit of this coefficient has no bearing whatsoever on his verdict…. …the role of the spectator is to determine the weight of the work on the aesthetic scale.
* his artist quote on the role of the spectator, in: ‘The Creative Act’, 1957, Duchamp’s famous lecture in Houston, April 1957, in ArtNews, 56. no. 4, Summer 1957, p. 28 –29 (
– In 1913 I had the happy idea to fasten a bicycle wheel to a kitchen stool and watch it turn (it became one of Duchamp’s earliest readymades: ‘Bicycle Wheel’ ed.).
A few months later I bought a cheap reproduction of a winter evening landscape, which I called ‘Pharmacy’ after assign two small dots, one red and one yellow, in the horizon.
In New York in 1915 I bought at a hardware store an 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.
* his quote on ready-made art like he made himself, source of his artist quotes about a.o. his ready-made art ‘Bicycle Wheel’, in ‘Apropos of ReadyMades, 1961’, Duchamp’s lecture at the MOMA museum, New York, 109 October 1961; in ‘Art and Artists 1’, July 1966: 47
– A point which I want very much to establish is that the choice of these ‘ready-mades’ was never dictated by aesthetic delectation. This choice was based on a reaction of visual indifference with at the same time a total absence of good or bad taste… in fact a complete anesthesia. One important characteristic was the short sentence which I occasionally inscribed on the ‘’readymade’. That sentence instead of describing the object like a title was meant to carry the mind of the spectator towards other regions more verbal.
* source of his artist quote on the origin of his early created ready-mades, in: ‘Apropos of ReadyMades, 1961’, his lecture at the MOMA museum, New York, 109 October 1961; in ‘Art and Artists 1’, July 1966: 47
– I realized very soon the danger of repeating indiscriminately this form of expression and decided to limit the production of ‘ready-mades’ to a small number 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.
* source of quote about his ready-made art, in: from ‘Apropos of ReadyMades, 1961’, Duchamp’s lecture at the MOMA museum, New York, 109 October 1961; in ‘Art and Artists 1’, July 1966: 47
– 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 ‘ready-mades’ existing today is not an original in the conventional sense.
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 ‘ready-mades aided’ and also works of assemblage.
* Marcel Duchamp, on his ready-made art, in: ‘Apropos of ReadyMades, 1961’, his famous lecture at the MOMA museum, New York, 109 October 1961; in ‘Art and Artists 1’, July 1966: 47
– I wanted to kill art for myself… …a new thought for that object.
* artist quote about why making ready-made art, in: ‘Marcel Duchamp 1887 – 1968’, in ‘Artforum’ 7 no. 3, November 1968, p. 6
– The spectator experiences the phenomenon of transmutation; through the change from inert matter into a work of art, an actual transubstantiation has taken place… …All in all, the creative act is not performed by the artist alone; the spectator brings the work into contact with the external world by deciphering and interpreting its inner qualifications and thus adds his contribution to the creative act.
* his artist quote on the important role of the spectator for a work of art, in: “The Writings of Marcel Duchamp (Marchand du Sel)” e.d. Michel Sanouille and Elmer Peterson, New York 1973, pp. 139-140
– Well, this man (the T.V. interviewer J.J., ed.) wanted to know why I stopped painting (the so-called famous ‘Silence of Duchamp’ ed.)… … and he had said [it was] because of dealers and money and various reasons. Largely moralistic reasons… …But you know; it wasn’t like that. It’s like you break a leg; you don’t mean to do it.
* quote on his famous ‘Silence’ in creating art, in: “Jasper Johns, Writings, sketchbook Notes, Interviews”, ed. Kirk Varnedoe, Moma, New York, 1996, p. 151
– I wanted to get away from the physical act of painting… …For me the title ( ‘Fresh Widow’, 1920, with inscription under: ‘Fresh Widow Copyright Rose Sélavy, 1920’, probably referring to all the widows because of the many killings of soldiers in World War, 1 which ended in 1918, fh) was very important… …I was interested in ideas – not merely visual products. I wanted to put painting once again at the service of the mind. (around 1960 probably, fh)
* Duchamp’s quote on his shift in painting of circa 1920, in: “Looking at Dada” ed. Sarah Blyth / Edward Powers, MoMa, New york 2006, p. 13
– …the thing was to choose one (a ready-made object, fh) that you were not attracted by… …and that was difficult because anything becomes beautiful if you look at it long enough… …[My intention was to] completely eliminate the existence of taste, bad or good or indifferent.
* his art statement on why making his ready-made art, in order to eliminate taste, in : “The New York school – the painters & sculptors of the fifties”, Irving Sandler, Harper & Row, Publishers, 1978, p. 164
– He (= Duchamp himself, writing in the third person, fh) CHOSE IT. He took an ordinary article of life, placed it so that its useful significance disappeared under the new title and point of view – created a new thought for that object.
* his quote on Marcel Duchamp himself, making ready-mades, in : ‘The Bride and the Bachelors’, Tomkins, p. 41; as quoted in ‘The New York school – the painters & sculptors of the fifties’ Irving Sandler, Harper & Row, Publishers, 1978, p. 171
– …because his applying paint to it (the sculpture ‘Painted Bronze’, two painted ale cans, by the American pré-Pop Art artist Jasper Johns, fh) was absolutely mechanical or, at least, as close to the printed thing as possible. It was not an act of painting; actually, the printing was just like printing except it was made by hand by him. That doesn’t add a thing to it. – it’s just the idea of imitating the beer can that is important.
* a critical art-comment on the mechanical pre-Pop painting art of Jasper Johns: ‘Some late thoughts of Marcel Duchamp’, interview with Jeanne Siegel, p. 21; quote from ‘The New York school – the painters & sculptors of the fifties’ Irving Sandler, Harper & Row, Publishers, 1978, p. 194
not sourced quotes by the famous French-born ready-made artist Marcel Duchamp, living in America
– This Neo-Dada, which they call New Realism, Pop Art, Assemblage etc. (Warhol, Liechtenstein, a.o. ed.) is an easy way out and lives on what Dadaism / Dada did. When I discovered ready-mades I thought to discourage aesthetics. In Neo-Dada they have taken my ready-mades and found aesthetic beauty in them. I threw the bottle-rack and the urinal in their faces as a challenge and now they admire them for their aesthetic beauty (art quote from his, to the German artist Hans Richter, 1962, fh)
– Somebody in Germany (= Joseph Beuys, ed.) has been talking about my ‘silence’, saying that it is overrated. What does that mean? (read this quote by Joseph Beuys’ quotes, he himself heard this ‘rumor’ from several American artists! Beuys continued: ‘I am convinced that he (=Duchamp, fh) knew very well what it meant. If he was unsure about it, he could have written me a letter…’
art links for more information on Marcel Duchamp and more biography facts
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* Marcel Duchamp, by Centre Pompidou, Paris
* Marcel Duchamp’s own writing about his most famous ready-made ‘Bicycle Wheel’
