An abstract painting need in 50 years by no means look "abstract" any longer.
Marcel DuchampRead
The curious thing about the Ready-Made is that I've never been able to arrive at a definition or explanation that fully satisfies me. There's still magic in the idea, so I'd rather keep it that way than try to be exoteric about it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Duchamp reflects on the elusive nature of art and creativity, embracing mystery over strict definition.
In this quote, Marcel Duchamp expresses his fascination with the concept of Ready-Mades, which are ordinary objects transformed into art through the artist's intent. He acknowledges the difficulty in pinning down a precise definition of what constitutes art, suggesting that the beauty lies in its ambiguity and the magic it holds, rather than in trying to convey its meaning in a straightforward manner.
Themes
ArtReady-MadeCreativityMysteryDefinition
In practice
Example use cases
In an art lecture discussing the evolution of 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
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Ideas alone can be works of art; they are in a chain of development that may eventually find some form. All ideas need not be made physical.
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I say to myself, 'I don't know how to act - and why does anybody want to look at me on-screen anymore?' ... Lots of actors feel that way. What gives you strength is also your weakness - your raging insecurity.
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