Duchamp and his legacy

December 22, 2008

"What accounts for the immense intellectual prestige which the mystique of Marcel Duchamp has enjoyed in this country – if only in certain circles, to be sure – for more decades than most of us can now remember?"

read more...

Simplistic Art: Artcore stuff

December 20, 2008

"The following excerpt from the autobiography of Lydie Fischer Sarazin-Levassor (Duchamp’s wife) is revealing, punny and insightful."

read more...

Input/ Output: Marcel Duchamp

December 19, 2008 " What is it then that distinguishes the offer of art 'Fountain' from the functional product urinal? Visible changes that were carried out by Duchamp and appear as material language, are the signature (R. Mutt 1917), the presentation (the backside lying on a pedestal - compare with the historical photo by Stieglitz for the journal 391), the place of presentation (not a sanitation shop-window, not a washroom - but an exhibition, museum - compare to a picture of Marcel Duchamp .. read more...

Marjorie Perloff’s Dada Without Duchamp / Duchamp Without Dada:
Avant-Garde Tradition and the Individual Talent

December 18, 2008 Dada is referred to by both art critics and it own members as a collective movement and a group provocation of both the art world and its long-held belief in individual genius.Duchamp himself, through his use of mass-produced objects, questioned the role of the individual artist.Yet at the same time, Duchamp is singled out as the movement’s leader and towers over its other members.  Majorie Perloff's ariticle Dada Without Duchamp/Duchamp Without Dada: Avant-Garde T.. read more...

Marcel Duchamp: Anything Goes

December 17, 2008 "The new exhibition at London's Tate Modern features three heavy hitters, the Frenchmen Marcel Duchamp and Francis Picabia, and the American Man Ray. They are associated with the Dada and Surrealism movements, but they were friends before these existed, and after they ended. Of the three, Duchamp is the towering genius. Out of his own interests, phobias and distractions, he created a new aesthetic that has survived to become the reigning spirit of today's art world. Its .. read more...

Pierre Pinocelli and the Destruction of Art

December 15, 2008 In The New York Times article Conceptual Artist as Vandal: Walk Tall and Carry a Little Hammer (or Ax), Alan Riding reports on the arrest of French performance artist Pierre Pinoncelli, who attempted to break a replica of Duchamp’s Fountain that was on display at the Pompidou center. Yet, as Riding points out, “the Dada movement made its name in the early 20th century by trying to destroy the conventional notion of art.” One cannot help but think that Duchamp would ha.. read more...

Spiritualism and Nihilism: The Second Decade?
Excerpt from A CRITICAL HISTORY

December 15, 2008 "Duchamp is, in effect, the first conceptual artist, and the readymades are the first conceptual works of art. As he said in 1946, he "wanted to get away from the physical aspect of painting. I was more interested in recreating ideas in painting. For me the title was very important." He finally abandoned painting for readymade objects. The question is what ideas they recreated. He wanted art to be an "intellectual expression" rather than an "anim.. read more...

Unmaking the Museum: Marcel Duchamp’s Readymades in Context

December 15, 2008

“Bicycle Wheel was not intended to be a remarkable piece of art, but rather a personal experiment. However, just because the initial idea behind it wasn’t art-oriented doesn’t mean that Duchamp didn’t whole-heartedly embrace the wonderful uproar and contradictions it later acquired when becoming designated as art.”

read more...

Novel Appearances: French Book Art at the New York Public Library

December 15, 2008 “It’s as though a bomb were inadvertently dropped on the essence of book art during the first World War; it emerged on the other side fundamentally changed, spinning off in many directions. Dada shook up the established ideas of art and literature, especially in Paris where the movement was well-grounded in the written word, with poets like André Breton, Tristan Tzara, and Paul Éluard at the helm. The new methods of making art and creating poetry mir.. read more...