An abstract painting need in 50 years by no means look "abstract" any longer.
Marcel DuchampRead
One must pass through the network of influence. One is obligated to be influenced, and one accepts this influence very naturally. From the start, one doesn't realize this. The first thing to know: one doesn't realize one is influenced. One thinks he is already liberated, and one is far from it!
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights how individuals are often unaware of the influences shaping their thoughts and actions.
Marcel Duchamp speaks to the idea that we are all embedded in a web of influences that shape our perceptions and choices, often without our conscious awareness. This lack of realization leads many to believe they are free thinkers, when in truth, they are influenced by societal and external factors from the very beginning of their journey.
Themes
InfluenceAwarenessFreedomPerceptionSociety
In practice
Example use cases
During a discussion on personal growth, one might say this quote to emphasize the importance of recognizing external influences in our lives.
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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