An abstract painting need in 50 years by no means look "abstract" any longer.
Marcel DuchampRead
The word 'art' interests me very much. If it comes from Sanskrit, as I've heard, it signifies 'making.' Now everyone makes something, and those who make things on a canvas with a frame, they're called artists. Formerly, they were called craftsmen, a term I prefer. We're all craftsmen, in civilian or military or artistic life.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Art is a universal act of creation that connects everyone as craftsmen.
Marcel Duchamp suggests that the act of making, which is inherent to all humans, defines art. He emphasizes that everyone engages in creation, whether through craftsmanship or artistic endeavors, thereby blurring the lines between traditional definitions of artists and craftsmen. Each person brings their unique contributions to the world, regardless of the medium they choose.
Themes
ArtCraftsmanshipCreationMakingArtists
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about creativity, one might refer to this quote to highlight the commonality of creative processes.
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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