An abstract painting need in 50 years by no means look "abstract" any longer.
Marcel DuchampRead
If only America would realize that the art of Europe is finished - dead - and that America is the country of the art of the future, instead of trying to base everything she does on European traditions!
Interpretation
Duchamp argues that America should innovate rather than imitate European art traditions.
In this quote, Marcel Duchamp expresses his belief that America has the potential to lead the future of art by moving away from the established traditions of Europe, which he sees as completed or outdated. He emphasizes the importance of originality and the value of American cultural contributions to the art world, advocating for a new artistic identity that reflects American innovation and creativity.
In practice
In a speech at an art conference, one might quote Duchamp to inspire artists to seek their own paths.
An abstract painting need in 50 years by no means look "abstract" any longer.
All this twaddle, the existence of God, atheism, determinism, liberation, societies, death, etc., are pieces of a chess game called language, and they are amusing only if one does not preoccupy oneself with 'winning or losing this game of chess.
I am still a victim of chess. It has all the beauty of art - and much more. It cannot be commercialized. Chess is much purer than art in its social position.
I never finished the 'Large Glass' because, after working on it for eight years, I probably got interested in something else; also, I was tired. It may be that, subconsciously, I never intended to finish it because the word 'finish' implies an acceptance of traditional methods and all the paraphernalia that accompany them.
It's a product of two poles - there's the pole of the one who makes the work, and the pole of the one who looks at it. I give the latter as much importance as the one who makes it.
I became a librarian at the Sainte-Genevieve Library in Paris. I made this gesture to rid myself of a certain milieu, a certain attitude, to have a clean conscience, but also to make a living. I was twenty-five. I had been told that one must make a living, and I believed it.
The music we play has to be tomorrow's, the things we say have to be today, and the reason for bothering is yesterday.
Fashion should be a form of escapism, and not a form of imprisonment.
'Write' is almost the wrong verb for what I do. I think 'compose' is more accurate because you're trying to make the sounds in your mind and in your voice. So I compose while I'm driving or in the shower.
Aesthetics has become too important to be left to the aesthetes. To succeed, hard-nosed engineers, real estate developers, and MBAs must take aesthetic communication, and aesthetic pleasure, seriously. We, their customers, demand it.
What you wear is how you present yourself to the world, especially today, when human contacts are so quick. Fashion is instant language.
I was lucky: I feel like I've written four books that mean something to me, and one book that means everything to me, and that's 'The Book Thief.'
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.