An abstract painting need in 50 years by no means look "abstract" any longer.
Marcel DuchampRead
I haven't been in the Louvre for twenty years. It doesn't interest me because I have these doubts about the value of the judgments which decided that all these pictures should be presented to the Louvre instead of others which weren't even considered.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote expresses skepticism about the value of established artistic hierarchies and institutions like the Louvre.
Marcel Duchamp's quote reflects his critical perspective on the traditional art world, highlighting his doubts about the subjective nature of artistic judgment that determines which artworks are deemed worthy of exhibition in renowned institutions like the Louvre. He suggests that the criteria for selection can be arbitrary and that many deserving works may be overlooked.
Themes
ArtJudgmentLouvreSubjectivityDuchamp
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a discussion about the role of museums in shaping art history.
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
Art creates an incomparable and unique effect, and, having done so, passes on to other things. Nature, upon the other hand, forgetting that that imitation can be made the sincerest form of insult, keeps on repeating this effect until we all become absolutely wearied of it.
Oscar WildeRead
When you think intensely and beautifully, something happens. That something is called poetry. If you think that way and speak at the same time, poetry gets in your mouth. If people hear you, it gets in their ears. If you think that way and write at the same time, then poetry gets written. But poetry exists in any case. The question is only: are you going to take part, and if so, how?
Robert BringhurstRead
The best camera is the one you have with you.
Jay MaiselRead
Fashion, which often seems to be on a path to be bigger, more Instagram-ready, can also achieve its best through sincerity.
Anna WintourRead
The pointes for girls, I always say, have to be like an elephant's trunk; strong and yet flexible and soft.
George BalanchineRead
It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them.
Ernest HemingwayRead