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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 Duchamp
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Chess embodies an artistic beauty that transcends mere commercial value.

In this quote, Marcel Duchamp expresses his deep admiration for chess, comparing it to art but emphasizing its purity and deeper significance. He suggests that while both chess and art offer beauty, chess holds an unmatched position in society because it exists outside the realm of commercialization, highlighting its unique and profound nature.

Themes

ChessArtBeautyPurityCommercialization

In practice

Example use cases

During a gallery opening, I might use this quote to emphasize the artistic nature of chess.

More from Marcel Duchamp

An abstract painting need in 50 years by no means look "abstract" any longer.
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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.
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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.
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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
Humor and laughter - not necessarily derogatory derision - are my pet tools. This may come from my general philosophy of never taking the world too seriously - for fear of dying of boredom.
Marcel DuchampRead

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