Duchamp Marcel (1887–1968)
Marcel Duchamp became a revolutionary in art. He is one of the few artists who became famous thanks to his paintings. It was Duchamp who gave an exhaustive definition of the main principle of avant-garde art: “Art is everything that the artist points to.” Based on this, almost any thing could be deprived of its usual context, as a result of which it was transformed into a work of art.
Marcel Duchamp was born in Blainville, the son of an artist. He began taking painting lessons in 1902, and a year later he moved to Paris, where he entered the Académie Julian. He experienced a passion for post-impressionism and fauvism. The young artist created a number of works in a similar spirit - “The Artist's Father” (1910), “The Game of Chess” (1910), “The Bush” (1910–1911, all - Museum of Art, Philadelphia).
From 1911 to 1913, Duchamp was part of the Puteaux association, whose representatives used the techniques of analytical cubism, which represented the fragmentation of forms and the intersection of edges and planes in compositions. Duchamp's painting of the 1910s is marked by an interest in conveying movement, and this point brings his art closer to the experiments of the Futurists. Perhaps cinema also had a certain influence on the artist’s style. This is exactly what you inevitably think about when you look at the volumes layered on top of each other and thus, as if trying to capture the individual phases of the figure’s movement. The first painting of this kind, “Nude Descending a Staircase” (1912, Museum of Art, Philadelphia), created a real sensation at an exhibition in New York. Remarkable works made in the same technique are “Portrait, or Dulcinea” (1911, Museum of Art, Philadelphia), “Sad Young Man on a Train” (1911–1912, P. Guggenheim Foundation, Venice), “The King and Queen Surrounded by quick nudes" (1912, both - Museum of Art, Philadelphia).
Next, Duchamp abandoned the depiction of complex structures and preferred to fill his compositions with massive, hard and dry forms, reminiscent of machine parts. Thanks to them, the relationships between planes and volumes became contradictory: “The Newlywed” (1912), “Chocolate Crusher” (1914), both - Museum of Art, Philadelphia.
In 1914, Duchamp became disillusioned with painting. He invented a new style - ready-made, which involved the use of objects familiar in household use as objects of art. This phenomenon became a revolution in avant-garde painting, since in the frame of the exhibition industrial products acquired the properties of an abstract form: “Bicycle Wheel” (1913), “Bottle Dryer” (1914). Duchamp returned from America to France in 1919. He joined the group of Dadaists, whose representatives unconditionally accepted the artist’s invention - the readymade.
M. Duchamp. "Nine Malic Forms", 1914–1915
The exhibition of Duchamp’s work entitled “The Fountain” at the New York Salon of Independents produced a scandalous effect. The artist exhibited a urinal he bought from a plumbing store as a work of art. True, he put his pseudonym on the item - R. Matt. By placing a well-known object in an alien context, the artist made it a fact of art. With his Fountain, Duchamp challenged established ideas about the nature of art. He declared publicly: “It does not matter who created the work: a certain Mr. Mutt or someone else, since this does not change anything in the anonymous properties of the object.”
Duchamp did not at all strive to express his attitude to reality in his art. He seemed, on the contrary, to want to move as far away from her as possible. He created new realities from already known objects. The search for the other world, not constrained by the boundaries of earthly space, led the artist to create the composition “Nine Malic Forms” (1914–1915).
In 1915, Duchamp visited New York with Picabia and founded a group of Dadaists there. Until 1923, for eight years, he worked on the programmatic work “The Large Glass: The Newlywed, Naked by Her Bachelors” (Museum of Art, Philadelphia). The technique of this composition was highly complex. The artist used oil painting and varnishes on glass, and a spatial collage consisting of lead wire, foil and paper. The entire composition was placed between two cracked glasses. The work was intended to symbolize the movement of subconscious desires and innermost streams of consciousness.
Hostility towards traditional art Duchamp maintained throughout his life. In 1920, he shocked the Parisian public by presenting the composition “L.H.O.O.Q.” at an exhibition at the Palais des Festivities. It was an ordinary reproduction of Leonardo da Vinci’s painting “La Gioconda,” to which the artist added a mustache. The great masterpiece at that time was perceived by avant-garde artists as a symbol of the respectability they hated.
M. Duchamp. "Large Glass: Newlywed Unveiled by Her Bachelors," 1915–1923, Museum of Art, Philadelphia
M. Duchamp. "Fountain", 1917
When the Dadaist group broke up, Duchamp joined the representatives of surrealism and took part in International exhibition surrealism (1938, Paris).
Since the 1930s, Duchamp completely abandoned visual arts. He was interested in chess and was fond of experiments in the field of optical illusions and cinema; he was very interested in moving structures various kinds. After World War II, Duchamp's works were published, in which he examined various problems of fine art. In general, Duchamp's works predetermined the development of such forms of avant-garde art as op art, installation art and kinetic art. He rightfully became the idol of a new generation of young avant-garde artists.
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Tim Berg - Alcoholic
Marcel Duchamp (July 28, 1887, Blainville-sur-Crevon - October 2, 1968, Neuilly-sur-Seine) - French and American artist, art theorist who stood at the origins of Dada and surrealism. His creative legacy is relatively small, but due to the originality of his ideas, Duchamp is considered one of the most influential figures in the art of the 20th century. His work influenced the formation of such trends in art of the second half of the 20th century as pop art, minimalism, conceptual art, etc.
The photo on the left is a self-portrait of the artist in profile.
Marcel Duchamp was born in small village Blancville-Crevon, located 20 km from Rouen. His father was a notary. Of the seven children in the family, four became famous artists: Marcel, his two older brothers - Jacques Villon (Gaston Duchamp), Raymond Duchamp-Villon, and sister Suzanne.
Nude going down the stairs
The family owed their love and interest in art to their maternal grandfather, Emile Nicolas, an amateur artist and engraver. The whole house was filled with his works. The father of the family gave the children freedom in choosing a profession, without insisting on continuing their business. Duchamp, like his older brothers, studied at the Lyceum in Rouen from 10 to 17 years old. He was not an outstanding student, but did well in mathematics. At the age of 14, he began to become seriously interested in drawing.
Landscape in Blainville 
First paintings Duchamp (landscapes of the surrounding area in the spirit of impressionism, drawings) date back to 1902. In 1904 he came to Paris, settled in Montmartre, tried to study at the Julian Academy, and quit his studies. Duchamp's painting during this period was not independent, close either to Cézanne or to the Fauvism of Matisse. In 1909, his works were exhibited at the Autumn Salon, where they were noticed by a famous critic.
Dulcinea 
He first attracted attention in 1913 with his painting Nude Descending a Staircase. He was obsessed with the idea of the connection between the human body and machines. In the same year, he introduced the term “readymade” (English - “finished product”), that is, a mass-produced product taken at random and exhibited as a work of art. Duchamp's "finished products"—a snow scraper, a hat rack, a bottle dryer, and a bicycle wheel—were a challenge to what he saw as pompous and empty traditional art.
Bride 
Among the most scandalous antics of Duchamp, directed against public opinion and art in general - the mustache and beard painted on a reproduction of the Mona Lisa. At the New York Independent Artists' Exhibition in 1917, he presented a urinal called "Fountain". The ironic name of this object gave it the status of a “work of art.”
Sonata 
In the 20s, Marcel Duchamp actively participated in the collective actions of the Dada group and the surrealists, published in Dada magazines and almanacs and participated in the filming of several films. The most famous of them was Rene Clair's film "Intermission" (1924) with the music of his friend, avant-garde composer Erik Satie, which became a classic of the genre and is still popular today.
Naked sad young man on a train
Subsequently, Duchamp practically retreated from creativity, indulging in pseudo-scientific research and his favorite game of chess, but for several decades remaining an influential figure in the American art scene and the international avant-garde, the object of the most controversial art historical interpretations.
Passage of the Virgin Mary
After 1942, Duchamp lived mostly in the United States, and in 1955 he took American citizenship. He acted in films several times, he himself directed the experimental film “Anemic Cinema” together with Man Ray, a short film is dedicated to him fiction film Paolo Marino-Blanco (2002). In 2000, the Marcel Duchamp Prize for young artists was established in France.
Young man and girl in spring
Paradise 
Portrait of Dr. R. Damauchel
Portrait of Gustave Kandel's mother
Reproduction of the Mona Lisa
Nine apple molds
Chocolate chopper
Marcel Duchamp(French Marcel Duchamp, July 28, 1887, Blainville-sur-Crevon - October 2, 1968, Neuilly-sur-Seine) - French and American artist, art theorist, who stood at the origins of Dadaism and surrealism. His creative legacy is relatively small, but due to the originality of his ideas, Duchamp is considered one of the most influential figures in the art of the 20th century. His work influenced the formation of such trends in art of the second half of the 20th century as pop art, minimalism, conceptual art, etc.
In 1912, he introduced the term “readymade” (English - “finished product”), that is, a mass-produced product taken at random and exhibited as a work of art.
Later, Duchamp abandoned the traditional expressive means. One of his “ready-mades” “Fountain” consisted of a bicycle wheel mounted on a stool, a shelf for bottles and a urinal. “I threw a urinal shelf in their faces, and now they admire its aesthetic perfection,” he wrote in 1962. Duchamp’s “readymades” often questioned the existence of the very concept of “taste.” Nevertheless, Duchamp's work had a huge influence on such art movements as surrealism and, later, conceptualism.
Marcel Duchamp was born on July 27, 1887 in the small village of Blancville-Crevon, located 20 km from Rouen. His father was a notary.
The family had seven children, one of whom died in childhood. Four of the children became famous artists. Marcel had two older brothers: Jacques Villon (Gaston Duchamp, 1875-1963) and Raymond Duchamp-Villon (1876-1916), who became famous artists. He was closest to his sister Suzanne (1989-1963), who became an artist. The youngest were two sisters.
The family owed their love and interest in art to their maternal grandfather, Emile Nicolas, former artist and an engraver. The whole house was filled with his works. The father of the family gave the children freedom in choosing a profession, without insisting on continuing their business. Duchamp, like his older brothers, studied at the Lyceum in Rouen from 10 to 17 years old. He was not an outstanding student, but he did well in math, winning math tests several times. school competitions. In 1903 he also won an art competition.
At the age of 14, he began to become seriously interested in drawing. From this time, his portraits of his sister Suzanne have been preserved. Trying to imitate his older brother Jacques Vionne, he creates several landscapes in an impressionistic spirit.
Born into the family of a provincial notary, he was interested in art, like his older brothers (painter Jacques Villon and sculptor Remond Duchamp-Villon) and younger sister, the artist Suzanne Duchamp-Crotty owes his maternal grandfather, the amateur artist Emile Nicolas. Duchamp's first paintings (landscapes of the surrounding area in the spirit of impressionism, drawings) date back to 1902. In 1904 he came to Paris, settled in Montmartre, tried to study at the Julian Academy, and quit his studies. Duchamp's painting during this period was not independent, close either to Cézanne or to the Fauvism of Matisse. In 1909, his works were exhibited at the Autumn Salon, and Guillaume Apollinaire responded to them in his review.
Through his brothers Jacques Villon and Remond Duchamp-Villon, Marcel Duchamp became acquainted with Cubism. He joins the De Puteau group, which included artists such as Gleuse and Metzinger.
Then, in the 1910-1920s, Duchamp moved on to a radical avant-garde search (“Nude Descending a Staircase”, 1912; “Bride Undressed by Her Bachelors, Alone in Two Persons”, 1915 - 1923), which brought him closer to Dadaism and surrealism. At the same time, he demonstratively eschews the role of an artist, a professional, and indeed painting itself in traditional sense works with words less and less, practicing the method of “ready-made things” that shocks the public, which are made into an artistic object only by the will and signature of the author, the context of an exhibition or museum (“Bicycle Wheel”, 1913; “Fountain”, 1917). Those parodied as models can also become such an object." high art"works of old masters - for example, "La Gioconda" by Leonardo da Vinci ("L.H.O.O.Q.", 1919), Duchamp's products of these years, extremely few in number and always of a provocative and playful nature until the invention of imaginary authors (the most famous of these alter egos is so called Rosa Selyavi), is constantly accompanied by detailed analytical notes by the author to the point of absurdity.
In the 20s, Marcel Duchamp actively participated in the collective actions of the Dada group and the surrealists, published in Dada magazines and almanacs and participated in the filming of several films. The most famous of them was Rene Clair's film "Intermission" (1924) with the music of his friend, avant-garde composer Erik Satie, which became a classic of the genre and is still popular today. Subsequently, Duchamp practically retreated from creativity, indulging in pseudo-scientific research and his favorite game of chess, but for several decades remaining an influential figure in the American art scene and the international avant-garde, the object of the most controversial art historical interpretations. After 1942 he lived mostly in the USA, and in 1955 he took American citizenship.
Duchamp acted in films several times - including in the surrealist film by Rene Clair "Intermission" (1924), he himself directed the experimental film "Anemic Cinema" (1926) together with Man Ray, and a short feature film by Paolo Marino-Blanco (2002) is dedicated to him ). In 2000, the Marcel Duchamp Prize for young artists was established in France.
BELARUSIAN STATE UNIVERSITY
STATE INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT
AND SOCIAL TECHNOLOGIES
DEPARTMENT OF ARTS
COURSE WORK
“The aesthetic meaning of M. Duchamp’s ready-made works”
Completed:
Stepanov V.K.
3rd year student, 4th group
specialty "Design"
Scientific adviser:
Professor
Renansky A. L.
Introduction
Chapter 1. A little about Marcel Duchamp.
2 Dadaism.
3 Avant-garde.
Chapter 2. Marcel Duchamp - genius or mediocrity.
2.1 Article by Michel Leiris: “The trades and crafts of Marcel Duchamp”
2 Article by Serse Philippe: “Duchamp’s Fountain – a ready-made as a challenge and demonstration.”
3 Further life of “Fontana”.
Chapter 3. The aesthetic meaning of ready-made works by M. Duchamp.
Conclusion
Application
Sources
Bibliography
Introduction
The aesthetic meaning of M. Duchamp’s ready-made works. This is very interest Ask, which has tormented many for almost 100 years. How? Why? For what? People constantly ask these questions about Duchamp's work. Is it really possible that an ordinary urinal, bought at a plumbing store, signed on the side with R. Mutt (which means “fool”), and turned 90 degrees, has become a work of art? Or his famous bottle dryer. Is she really a work of art? How did ordinary everyday objects suddenly acquire the status of works of art?
That is why I chose this topic for my course work. To get at least a little closer to the answer to this question.
To answer a number of these questions, you need to find out what goals Duchamp pursued. After all, by answering this question, we can get closer to answering all other questions.
Unfortunately, I will no longer be able to ask all the questions that worry me personally to Marcel Duchamp. And I’m unlikely to be able to get into his head, so I’ll have to dig a little into his biography, his work, find out how the artist lived, find out what bothered him. This is exactly what we will talk about in Chapter 1. Also in this chapter we will talk about a number of terms such as:
Dadaism.
Avant-garde.
In Chapter 2 I will introduce you to a number of opinions of various people, namely: Sersa Philip, E. S. Domaratskaya. And from all this I will draw a conclusion.
In Chapter 3 I will draw my own conclusion based on everything written above.
These are actually all the goals that I set for myself in order to answer the main question: What is it like? The aesthetic meaning of M. Duchamp’s ready-made works.
Chapter 1. A little about Marcel Duchamp
Henri Robert Marcel Duchamp - French artist, one of the greatest innovators in art of the 20th century.
Born on July 28, 1887 near Blainville, France (near Rouen, in Normandy. In 1904 he moved to Paris, where he joined his brothers, Jacques Villon and Raymond Duchamp-Villon, and began to study painting at the Académie Julian. His studies continued until 1905.
In 1910-1911 he became interested in physics and mathematics; At the same time, Duchamp, together with his brothers and other young artists, organized the “Salon of the Golden Ratio”. The purpose of this artistic association there was a study perfect proportions and the golden ratio, as well as the mathematical foundations of art in general.
Duchamp's early works were influenced by Post-Impressionism.
Duchamp exhibited his works for the first time in 1909 at the Salon of Independent Artists and at the Salon d Automne in Paris. His paintings until 1911 were directly related to Cubism. These were often sequential images of the body in motion.
In 1912, Duchamp painted the final version of the painting “Nude Descending from a Staircase.” It was shown that same year at the Salon de la Section d Or and subsequently caused a big scandal at the Armory Show in New York, where one critic not very wittily called it “an explosion in a pasta factory” (1913). The author himself explained the concept of the painting as “the organization of kinetic elements, the transmission of time and space through an abstract image of movement.”
Then, in the 1910s - 1920s, Duchamp moved on to a radical avant-garde search (“Nude Descending a Staircase”, 1912; “Bride Undressed by Her Bachelors, Alone in Two Persons”, 1915 - 1923), which brought him closer to Dadaism and surrealism. At the same time, he demonstratively eschews the role of an artist, a professional, and actually engages in painting in the traditional sense of the word less and less, practicing the method of “ready-made things” that shocks the public, which are made into an artistic object only by the will and signature of the author, the context of an exhibition or museum (“Bicycle Wheel” (p. 32), 1913; “Bottle Dryer” (p. 31), 1914; “Fountain,” 1917 (p. 18)). Such an object can also be the works of old masters parodied as examples of “high art” - for example, “La Gioconda” by Leonardo da Vinci (“L.H.O.O.Q.”, 1919 (p. 33)). Duchamp's productions of these years, extremely few in number and always of a provocative and playful nature until the invention of imaginary authors (the most famous of these alter egos is the so-called Rose Selyavi), are constantly accompanied by detailed analytical notes by the author to the point of absurdity. In most cases, Duchamp’s original “ready-mades” have not survived, but the artist, as a rule, performed repetitions for friends (in 1964 A. Schwartz published them in eight numbered and signed copies). Also in 1913. Marcel Duchamp turns to painting on glass. He creates the large composition “The Bride Stripped Bare by her Bachelors, Even” (1915-1923, Philadelphia, Museum of Art, Arensberg Collection). In that amazing work the artist reproduced pure and absurd frivolity and his philosophy of love and desire. In the 20s, Marcel Duchamp actively participated in the collective actions of the Dada group and the surrealists, published in Dada magazines and almanacs and participated in the filming of several films. The most famous of them was Rene Clair's film "Intermission" (1924) with the music of his friend, avant-garde composer Erik Satie, which became a classic of the genre and is still popular today. Subsequently, Duchamp practically retreated from creativity, indulging in pseudo-scientific research and his favorite game of chess, but for several decades remaining an influential figure in the American art scene and the international avant-garde, the object of the most controversial art historical interpretations. After 1942 he lived mostly in the USA, and in 1955 he took American citizenship.
Duchamp made the experimental film Anemic Cinema (1926) together with Man Ray, and a short feature film by Paolo Marino-Blanco (2002) is dedicated to him. In 2000, the Marcel Duchamp Prize for young artists was established in France.
Marcel Duchamp was a very bright and significant figure of that time. Among other things, he was very fond of chess and had the title of grandmaster. He played for the French team at international chess Olympiads. At first glance, the cold mathematics of chess seems to be the complete opposite of the subtle and unpredictable poetry of art, of which Duchamp himself was well aware. However, he managed to reconcile these opposites in a unique way: “In my life, chess and art stand at opposite poles, but don’t be deceived. Chess is not just a mechanical function. They are plastic, so to speak. Every time I move pawns on the board, I create a new shape, new drawing, and thus I am satisfied with the constantly changing contour."5 In addition to “plasticity”, i.e. proximity visual image With its inner essence, chess appealed to the artist’s consciousness with a special logic, leaving an imprint on the very manner of his creative thinking: “It’s not to say that there is no logic in chess. Chess forces you to be logical. The logic is there, but it’s just not visible.”
But the most important thing that I would like to note is, perhaps, that M. Duchamp lived in accordance with the first philosophical virtue - freedom.
Having delved into the personal life and work of Marcel Duchamp, it is now necessary to define three terms that shaped and characterized his work, namely:
Dadaism.
Avant-garde.
made (ready-made, from the English ready-made - finished product) - a term denoting household items, mass-produced products, by the will of the artist, torn out of their usual environment and placed in exhibition halls like works of art.
The term ready-made in the context of fine art was first used by the French artist Marcel Duchamp.
2 Dadaism
Dadaism is an artistic and literary direction, which aims to destroy bourgeois culture and discredit bourgeois morals. In place of what is denied, Dadaism puts the anarchic initiative of the individual, not bound by anything in Everyday life and in art. (“The Dadaist is the most a free man on globe" “He who lives for today lives forever” (R. Gulsenbeck). “I am against any system. The most acceptable system is to have no system at all” (T. Tzara)). The anarchic revolt of the Dadaists against “everything” is one of the extreme forms of figurative expression of the indignation and social helplessness of the petty-bourgeois intelligentsia and bohemians in the face of the imperialist war and its social consequences. This is evidenced by both the emergence and the program and practice of Dadaism.
The founder of the movement, poet Tristan Tzara, discovered the word “dada” in the dictionary. “In the language of the Negro tribe of Kru,” wrote Tzara in a manifesto of 1918, “it means the tail of a sacred cow, in some areas of Italy this is what they call a mother, it can be a designation for a child’s wooden horse, a wet nurse, a double statement in Russian and Romanian. It could also be a reproduction of incoherent baby babble. In any case, it was something completely meaningless, which from now on became the most successful name for the entire movement.”
Dadaism and the movements that followed it are completely unthinkable as original or spontaneous forms of art; the most important prerequisite for their existence is the denial of the stable values of traditional artistic culture. Denial and destruction of not only the form of self-affirmation of the named movements, but also the form of their existence, and in this sense the term “anti-art” fits them. The Dadaists proclaimed: “The Dadaists are nothing, nothing, nothing, undoubtedly they will achieve nothing, nothing, nothing.”
3 Avant-garde
Avant-garde [fr. avant-gardisme] - the name of a number of artistic movements of the 20th century, striving for a radical renewal of the arts. both in content and form; sharply criticizing traditional trends, forms and styles, as well. often comes to belittling the importance of the cultural and historical heritage of mankind, to a nihilistic attitude towards eternal values.
The word of French origin, vanguard, originally referred exclusively to military terminology and meant a detachment moving forward along the movement of the army; forward detachment. During the French Revolution, this word became a revolutionary metaphor and in 1794 became the name of a Jacobin magazine. Since then, the political meaning began to supplant the military one.
The term in its figurative meaning was used in the works of French socialist utopians. In their works, the term was first given as follows: artistic sense- the founder of the school of utopian socialism, Henri Saint-Simon, in the article “The Artist, the Scientist and the Worker,” published in the year of his death in 1825, assigned the leading role to the artist in the union of the artist, scientist and worker. The artist, according to Saint-Simon, is endowed with imagination and must use the power of art to propagate advanced ideas: “It is we, the artists, who will serve as your avant-garde.”
In the history of fine arts, Avant-garde is designated as artistic direction early 20th century and is therefore closely related to Art Nouveau and Modernism, as well as other movements such as:
· Abstract expressionism
Bauhaus
· Pointlessness
·Expressionism
Dadaism
Constructivism
·Cubism
Systematism
·Stochatism
Suprematism
·Primitivism
·Surrealism
·Futurism
Chapter 2. Marcel Duchamp - genius or mediocrity
There are many different opinions and disputes regarding the ready-made works of M. Duchamp. Some will say he is a genius. Someone will say that he is an idiot who simply had nothing better to do than turn over urinals. But in order to understand the true meaning of his works, I must dig much deeper.
In this chapter I want to introduce you to a couple of very good, in my opinion, articles in which the authors try to answer questions regarding the work of M. Duchamp, namely: what were the ready-made works of M. Duchamp, what goals did he pursue? .
In subsection 2.1, I will consider an article by Michel Leiris, a French writer and ethnologist: “The Trades and Crafts of Marcel Duchamp.”
In subsection 2.2, I will consider an article by Serse Philippe, a French philosopher, art historian, teacher of aesthetics and art history, author of the books: “Kandinsky: Philosophy of Abstraction, Metaphysical Image” (1995), “Dialogue with the Work: Art and Criticism” (1995), “Oh Dada: an essay on the Dadaist experience of the image” (1997), etc.: “ Fountain
In subsection 2.3 we will talk about the future life of “Fontan”.
1 Article by Michel Leiris: “The Trades and Crafts of Marcel Duchamp”
M. Leiris begins this article by calling us to think about our way of feeling and thinking. Is not a large part of what is called aesthetic pleasure connected with the game of substitutions?
Michel Leiris notices a certain play in the works of Marcel Duchamp. He says that Marcel Duchamp, with his works, is trying to anarchically desacralize stable classical values. And I believe that he succeeded to some extent:
“By making widespread use of serial (ready-made, standard) things, Marcel Duchamp - with his rejection of everything that anachronistically recalls manual labor - does not at all seek to simply replace the particular, calligraphically depicted by the individual, with the universal, endowed with the same (absolute in its completeness) the inevitability that a printed page is endowed with compared to a handwritten page. No, no mysticism of beautiful things, no fascination of simple-minded Westerners with wonderful industrial products. Rather, this move is one of the logical links in the persistent work of desacralization and anatomization of painting, to which Duchamp has been devoted for many years, preoccupied with using his - as we know, rare - gift of an artist exclusively in the form of its negation.”
By this, M. Leiris emphasizes the dadaism of Marcel Duchamp’s works, namely negation and anarchism in relation to sustainable values.
“A kind of hopscotch game, a mysterious sequence of cells along which the mind can gallop along on only one leg” - these are the kind of metaphors that, in my opinion, can give at least general idea about the techniques used by Duchamp in what we have to, for lack of a better word, call his “works.” Such tidying up to ascetic purity, which Duchamp’s cheerfully uninhibited manner leaves behind in place of any excesses, provides one invaluable advantage: in art, almost indistinguishable already behind the screens of social conventions and the aura of religious veneration, play is discovered. The joy of a man who, having clearly seen the endless system of mirrors in which he and his destiny are walled up, once and for all refuses of his own free will to fall into the trap of soap bubbles painted magic lanterns, and with understanding of the matter erects his own cabinet of curiosities; the joy is not of an artist or a creator, but of an inventive creator, who in place of generally accepted reflections puts many others, not approved in practice by anyone, but therefore no less justified, and, without asking anyone, produces magnificent stamps and business cards, game puzzles for Lepin competitions and pot-bellied silenes, full of healing oils and philosophical subtleties.”
2 Article by Serse Philippe: “ Fountain Duchamp - ready-made as a challenge and demonstration"
In this, in my opinion, excellent article, Serse Philippe answers the question: What goals does M. Duchamp pursue by fulfilling and then exhibiting his most famous work"Fountain".
Sers Philippe begins with the fact that an artist engaged in methodical research faces, in addition to the prevailing conventions, the following danger: it is necessary to avoid the traps of a social consensus that tends to give a work a sacred character (all the destructiveness of which we have already seen in Nietzsche’s analyzes). Marcel Duchamp’s famous ready-made “Fountain” is intended to eliminate such a risk, the true intention of which has to be clarified to this day, since modern thought harbors many illusions about this object, based on very rough criticism of its predecessors. Actually, the entire critical fate of this demarche is marked by an impressive number of erroneous interpretations.
The misunderstanding began in 1967 by Daniel Buren, who stated that “from the moment Duchamp exhibited a bottle dryer, a shovel or a urinal<…>In fact, anything becomes art, you just have to designate this “something” as art.”
“The thought seems seductive: “anything” belongs to the register of a hypothesis from the field of exact sciences, and at first glance the formula looks successful.” - writes Serse Philip, - “However, in reality, Buren’s conclusion turns out to be a source of false interpretations. Thus, some authors see in Duchamp’s decision to exhibit “Fountain” a key moment of modernity: it follows that the criterion of art lies not in the work, but in the gesture of the one who proclaims himself an artist, and in the gaze of the one who accepts the works proposed by the artist as such . It turns out that Duchamp thereby elevates “anything” to the rank of a work of art, and the formula “you can do whatever comes into your head”, for its part, gives the layman the opportunity to consider readymades mediocrity. But Duchamp argued that readymades are not art. The ideological construction turns out to be no more stable than the definition of “modernity” given in the same analysis in relation to the avant-garde.
The reasons for Duchamp's decision have been analyzed erroneously, since he is actually resorting here to proof from the absurd. The definition of art interests him no more than any other avant-garde figure. But the assessment of social institutions - and this is precisely what such an error of interpretation hides behind - brought out of his project only the spectacular side of the gesture. Such a collective sieve, by definition, is capable of holding only what can interest it: performances, unexpected performances or spectacular demonstrations. In this institutional sieve, all that remains is the external, the quantifiable—mere appearance.
In 1912, right before the opening of the exhibition at the Paris Salon of Independents, Duchamp was demanded to remove his “Nude Descending a Staircase” from the exhibition: the picture shocked the organizers. But as it turned out, he later exhibited it at the Armory Show in America, New York. It was there that visitors appreciated it. Long lines of people lined up just to see his work.
This whole incident greatly inspired M. Duchamp. In 1917, Duchamp, without specifying the name of the sender, sent to the New York Salon of Independents (of which he was one of the founders) an inverted urinal, called “Fountain”, and signed “R. Mutt”. The proposed object was rejected by the organizers, who had no idea who sent it.
Contrary to the prevailing idea, the “Fountain” urinal is not a “work of art” in the generally accepted sense of the word. Duchamp himself confirmed this quite unequivocally in a letter to Hans Richter: “When I discovered the principle of readymades, I hoped to put an end to this whole carnival of aestheticism. But neo-Dadaists use readymades, trying to find aesthetic value in them. I threw a dryer and a urinal in their faces as a provocation, and they admired their aesthetic beauty.”
Marcel Duchamp did not position the urinal and bottle dryer as a work of art in the sense that we usually attach to it. With his demonstration, he revealed the mirage that hides the aesthetics of perception: if you entrust judgment to museum visitors and art salons, the work of art will be approved by a faceless institutional field. But even by these criteria, the fountain, signed with the name “Mutt” (a slightly distorted name of the sanitary ware manufacturing company), is not a work of art. It would have become one if it had been signed by Duchamp, who, as the founder of the Salon, had institutional power.”
3 Further life of “Fontana”
Duchamp's work continues to torment artists who, no, no, and even burst out with some kind of reference to it. For example, in Russia the following two remarks were made towards “Fontan”. In 1993, Avdey Ter-Oganyan exhibited at the Trekhprudny Gallery his work “Problems of restoration of works contemporary art».
“I imagined a situation in which Duchamp’s Fountain crashed,” comments the artist. - “How will they act museum workers? They will glue the old one together or buy a new one. I think they will do the most ridiculous thing - make a copy. But the point is not in a specific subject, but in an idea. Duchamp even left instructions that museums should always display ordinary new model for three kopecks - in order to avoid turning the “fountain” into a nostalgic antique.”
A year before, in the same “Gallery on Trekhprudny”, Ter-Oganyan exhibited a urinal, returning it to its original functions.
Surprisingly, shortly after this, action artist Pierre Pinoncelli urinated in a Duchamp work exhibited in the city of Nîmes in the south of France. He told the court that in this way he returned the truly Dadaist spirit to Duchamp's work. The artist was sentenced to a month in prison for “deliberate damage to an object of public use,” which actually sounds very ambiguous.
On January 6, 2006, French police detained Pinoncelli for the second time, this time at the Pompidou Center, a museum of modern art, where Pinoncelli wrote “Dada” on the Fountain and, trying to break it with a hammer, broke off a piece. In his defense, Pinoncelli said: “I’m not some cheap vandal that they try to make me out to be. The vandal does not sign his works. I winked at Dada, I wanted to evoke its spirit, the spirit of disrespect.” However, despite the convincingness of the explanations, the court still gave 77-year-old Pierre Pinoncelli three months probation and imposed a fine on him.
Chapter 3. The aesthetic meaning of ready-made works by M. Duchamp
In this chapter I will answer the main question: what was the aesthetic meaning of M. Duchamp’s ready-made works? I will also write my opinion regarding his work and contribution to art.
Unfortunately, I was not able to personally talk about this topic with Marcel Duchamp, so I will draw a conclusion based on everything written above.
Serse Philippe wrote in his article that M. Duchamp does not even try to elevate his works into the framework of a “work of art.” For him it was just a gesture. A spit in the face of ignorant society and the herd instincts of humanity. But was all his ready-made work really a gesture? Why didn't he rub society's nose into their shortcomings? Why didn't he announce them loudly?
Well, I think that his first ready-made works were not any kind of gesture at all. It is possible that the artist was in search of himself. Perhaps he wanted to show all the beauty of the things around us. Duchamp said that “by taking an ordinary everyday object, I positioned it in such a way that the meaning of usefulness disappears under the pressure of a different name and a different approach.” His explanation could be understood in the sense that he wanted to make viewers see everyday objects in a different light, but it turned out that Duchamp did not have beauty in mind at all. He sought to move away from visual perception, “retinal perception” as he called it, towards purely intellectual or “cerebral” perception. The point was not to see the urinals and bicycle wheels in a new light, but to think about them in a different way.
And only in the case of “Fountain” did Duchamp seem to ridicule the herd instincts of society. Offended by the fact that his work “Nude Descending a Staircase” was first ridiculed in France and then recognized in the United States, he made a trick regarding the evaluation of works of art. That is why he signed the urinal not M. Duchamp, but R. Mutt (which means “fool”). And they raised this urinal into the frame of a work of art only when they learned that the author of this “creation” was not some unknown Mr. R. Mutt, but the already famous Marcel Duchamp at that time.
Most likely, all his subsequent ready-made works were also a mockery, a spit in the face of those who, based on the status of people, elevate their works to various categories.
Duchamp avant-garde maid dada
Conclusion
Marcel Duchamp is truly a legendary figure. There are still conversations and debates about his works, and almost 100 years have passed. You can spend many hours discussing, arguing, talking about his works and contribution to art. But we will never know the 100% true reason for the creation of his works, because we cannot go back into the past and get into his head.
One thing is clear: this coin has two sides. The positive thing is that M. Duchamp made an attempt to ridicule ignorance when assessing works of art. Make fun of the herd instincts of society. And of course, the plus is that ready-made brought us the Installation.
The negative side is that Marcel Duchamp (even though he himself does not consider his ready-made works to be works of art) remained silent, without loudly poking society at their shortcomings. By doing this, he blurred the boundaries between the beautiful and the ugly. And if there are no boundaries, then, therefore, any objects surrounding us are works of art. And if all these are works of art, then there are no works of art at all.
Textbook readymades Fountain , Bottle dryer , Bicycle wheel were created by Duchamp between 1913 and 1920, and in 1964 the artist made his own copies. According to preliminary data, this collection of Duchamp readymades was valued at $12.6 million. At Phillips auction in 2002 Fountain was sold for $1,185,000, Bicycle wheel - for 1,762,500 dollars, Air of Paris - for 167,500 dollars, and Comb for just $123,500.
And now every ignoramus, in the hope of earning more money, will do something similar. Let’s say at the largest exhibition of contemporary art in the world, Art Basel Miami Beach, the following exhibits were exhibited:
Or here's another one:
And this “brilliant” work by Damien Hirst, one of the successful contemporary artists, was sent to Mars in a British spacecraft at the end of 2003:
Sources
· Sers Philippe: " Fountain Duchamp - ready-made as a challenge and demonstration.”
· Michel Leiris: "The Trades and Crafts of Marcel Duchamp."
· E. S. Domaratskaya: “The experimental art of Marcel Duchamp.”
·<#"justify">Bibliography
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DUCHAMP (Duchamp) Marcel (Henri Robert Marcel) (28.7.1887, Blainville-Crevon, Seine-Maritime department - 2.10.1968, Neuilly-sur-Seine), French artist. He began painting in 1902 (“Chapel in Blainville”, Museum of Art, Philadelphia). In 1904 he arrived in Paris, where he studied at the Academy of R. Julian. IN early works mastered the techniques of post-impressionism, fauvism and painting of the Nabi group (“Red House in the Apple Orchard”, 1908, private collection, New York, etc.). In 1911, together with his brothers R. Duchamp Villon and the painter Jacques Villon (Gaston Duchamp; 1875-1963), he formed the Puteaux group, which formed the core of Montparnasse Cubism, which declared itself in 1912 at the Golden Ratio exhibition. By crushing forms and overlapping small edges and planes, Duchamp sought to convey movement, which brings his painting of the early 1910s closer to the search for futurism. Double, overlapping volumes record, as in chronophotography, different phases of the figure’s movement (“Sad Young Man on a Train,” 1911-12, P. Guggenheim Collection, Venice; “Nude Descending Staircase No. 2,” 1912, Museum Arts, Philadelphia).
Since 1913, Duchamp, disillusioned with painting, showed at exhibitions his first “ready-made objects” - readymades: “Bicycle Wheel on a Stool” (1913), “Bottle Dryer” (1914, Museum of Modern Art, New York), the infamous “Fountain” (under this name the urinal was exhibited in 1917), “L. N.O.O.Q" ("Mona Lisa with a mustache", circa 1919, National Museum contemporary art, Paris; see illustration for the article Dadaism), etc. They marked the beginning of the Dadaist period in the artist’s work. In 1915 he arrived in New York, where, together with F. Picabia and Man Ray, he founded a group whose activities prepared art movement Dadaism. Turning (from 1913) to painting on glass, he created the large-format composition “Large Glass: Newlywed Undressed by Her Own Bachelors” (1915-1923, not preserved; author’s reconstructions - 1936, Museum of Art, Philadelphia, and 1961, Museum of Modern Art, Stockholm ), symbolizing the circulation of instinctive desires and streams of the subconscious.
In 1923, Duchamp announced his refusal artistic creativity, however, from time to time he made provocative “anti-art” manifestations. In 1935-41 he created a kind of portable museum: miniature replicas and reproductions own works, arranged in boxes packed in a suitcase (National Museum of Modern Art, Paris). After Duchamp's death, another of his creations was discovered - “Given: 1) a waterfall, 2) a gas lamp” (1946-66, Museum of Art, Philadelphia). This installation with defiantly erotic female figure, stretched out with a lamp in hand against the backdrop of a strange landscape, can only be seen through the crack of a dilapidated door, tightly blocking the mysterious scene.
At the end of his life, Duchamp gained fame as a pioneer and became an idol of the new generation of avant-garde, which renewed the experimental quest of Dadaism. His work entered the prehistory of such movements as on-art, non-art, kinetic art, minimalism, and conceptual art. Duchamp's sister is the painter Suzanne Duchamp-Crotti (1889-1963), wife of the painter Jean Crotti (Crotti; 1878-1958).
Works: Dialogues with M. Duchamp. L., 1971; The essential writings. L., 1975; Die Schriften/Hrsg. von S. Stauffer. Z., 1981.
Lit.: Tomkins S. The world of M. Duchamp. N.Y., 1966; Schwarz A. M. Duchamp. R., 1974; Cabanne R. Les trois Duchamp: J. Villon, R. Duchamp-Villon, M. Duchamp. Neuchâtel, 1975; Molderings N. M. Duchamp. Fr./M., 1983; Bailly J. S. M. Duchamp. R., 1984; Lebel R. M. Duchamp. R., 1985; Moure G. M. Duchamp. L., 1988; M. Duchamp. (Cat.). Camb., 1993; M. Duchamp: artist of the century / Ed. R. E. Kuenzli, F. M. Naumann. Z., 1994; Mink J. M. Duchamp: art as anti-art. Köln, 1995.
