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
Similar quotes
I'm very much aware in the writing of dialogue, or even in the narrative too, of a rhythm. There has to be a rhythm with it … Interviewers have said, you like jazz, don’t you? Because we can hear it in your writing. And I thought that was a compliment.
Elmore LeonardRead
It is entirely possible to create something totally artificial within the realms of rock and roll.
David BowieRead
Man must speak, then sing, then dance. The speaking is the brain, the thinking man. The singing is the emotion. The dancing is the Dionysian ecstasy which carries away all.
Isadora DuncanRead
I always thought of photography as a naughty thing to do - that was one of my favorite things about it, and when I first did it, I felt very perverse.
Diane ArbusRead
Film has to be reflecting the world that we live in, and that's all you want to be a part of. Actors inhabit the same planet as everyone else. It's a weird thing that happens when you're an actor because people hold you up because you somehow embody in parts groups of people or people's hopes or something.
Alan RickmanRead
Today, writers want to impress other writers.
Paulo CoelhoRead