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If your choice enters into it, then taste is involved - bad taste, good taste, uninteresting taste. Taste is the enemy of art, A-R-T.
Marcel Duchamp
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Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote suggests that taste, which is subjective, can hinder true artistic expression.

Marcel Duchamp's quote highlights the idea that personal taste can influence our perception of art, sometimes negatively. By asserting that taste is the 'enemy of art,' he implies that strict adherence to what is deemed 'good' or 'bad' taste may restrict the broader, more profound context of artistic freedom and innovation, urging viewers to look beyond conventional judgments.

Themes

ArtTasteSubjectivityExpressionCreativity

In practice

Example use cases

This quote can be used while discussing modern art in a classroom setting.

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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.
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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.
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