An abstract painting need in 50 years by no means look "abstract" any longer.
Marcel DuchampRead
The entire world of art has reached such a low level, it has been commercialized to such a degree that art and everything related to it has become one of the most trivial activities of our epoch.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Art has become overly commercialized and trivialized in today's society.
Marcel Duchamp's quote reflects a critical viewpoint on the state of contemporary art, suggesting that the commercialization of art has diminished its value and significance. He argues that in modern times, art has evolved from a profound expression of human experience to a superficial activity driven by market demands, ultimately leading to a loss of depth and meaning.
Themes
ArtCommercializationTrivializationEpochCritique
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in an art criticism piece to discuss the impact of commercialism on artistic integrity.
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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