An abstract painting need in 50 years by no means look "abstract" any longer.
Marcel DuchampRead
Artists of all times are like the gamblers of Monte Carlo, and this blind lottery allows some to succeed and ruins others. In my opinion, neither the winners nor the losers are worth worrying about.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Artistic creation is unpredictable, much like gambling, where luck plays a significant role in success or failure.
Marcel Duchamp's quote highlights the unpredictable nature of artistic creation, comparing artists to gamblers at Monte Carlo. He suggests that within the realm of art, there is a lottery-like chance of success, with some individuals thriving while others do not. Duchamp seems to imply that the outcomes of artistic endeavors, much like the results of a gamble, should not overly concern us, focusing instead on the process rather than the end result.
Themes
ArtGamblingSuccessFailureCreativity
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the unpredictability of success in creative industries.
More from Marcel Duchamp
All quotes →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.
Marcel DuchampRead
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.
Marcel DuchampRead
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.
Marcel DuchampRead
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.
Marcel DuchampRead
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.
Marcel DuchampRead
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