An abstract painting need in 50 years by no means look "abstract" any longer.
Marcel DuchampRead
In the beginning, the cubists broke up form without even knowing they were doing it. Probably the compulsion to show multiple sides of an object forced us to break the object up - or, even better, to project a panorama that unfolded different facets of the same object.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The cubists revolutionized the representation of objects by depicting them from multiple perspectives simultaneously.
Marcel Duchamp's reflection on cubism emphasizes how the movement's artists instinctively fragmented forms to capture the complexity of objects, revealing different angles and aspects that could not be seen from a single viewpoint. This method reveals a deeper understanding of perception and challenges traditional notions of representation in art.
Themes
CubismFormArtMultiple PerspectivesRepresentation
In practice
Example use cases
In an art critique, one might refer to this quote to discuss the impact of cubism on modern art.
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
Similar quotes
I work with few colors, what creates the illusion of quantity is that they fell in the right place.
Pablo PicassoRead
I've photographed just about everyone in the world. But what I hope to do is photograph people of accomplishment, not celebrity, and help define the difference once again.
Richard AvedonRead
I slowly dismantled the act of painting, to consider the possibility that no-thing ever really transcends its immediate environment.
Robert IrwinRead
The way a small child might dream of visiting Disneyland, I dreamed of writing books. Never did I think my poems would become that.
Rupi KaurRead
Look and think before opening the shutter. The heart and mind are the true lens of the camera.
Yousuf KarshRead
I will now claim - until dispossesed - that I was the first person in the world to apply the typewriter to literature. ... The early machine was full of caprices, full of defects- devilish ones. It had as many immoralities as the machine of today has virtues. After a year or two I found that it was degrading my character, so I thought I would give it to Howells. ... He took it home to Boston, and my morals began to improve, but his have never recovered.
Mark TwainRead