Marcel Duchamp and the road to the core concept and idea that creates art
Core of art is not in aesthetics just like the core of human is not in the flesh and the bones, the visual representation is just a small aspect of the true mechanism of a living art/body
Marcel Duchamp probably influenced the 20th century art more than any other, because he was hitting at the core aspects of the ideas forming in the 20th century on the level of a collective. Obsessed with mechanism of a desire, questiniong emotional and condemning representational as “retinal pleasure” he was was fearless in his quest to reveal the essence of human experience. The core, the starting point where the mechanical functioning of the world is based.
Probably most famous for his shocking “readymade” called Fountain (1917) which was an attempt to moke the American avant-garde art scene, in fact was received as a wake up call to something new, something exciting, a Conceptual art. He believed that the idea of and about the artwork is far more important than the object itself. The context in which his “readymade” pieces were presented spoke volumes and invited the level of thinking that was astonishing at the time of making.
“I have forced myself to contradict myself in order to avoid conforming to my own taste.” Duchamp
Like so many of his contemporaries he was a multidisciplinary and explored various fields such as being a professional chess player, painter, volunteer at military service, inventor, librarian, art dealer, cameraman and a several other roles, wearing a different hat each time.
In his later years he completely withdrew from the art world and seemed as if he was playing chess all of the time, however he was working on one piece, a final piece for 20 years it is named Etant donnes (Give: 1. The Waterfall, 2. The Illuminating Gas) it is a sculpture only visible through the peepholes in a wooden door.
He was possibly one of the strongest representative of the Dada movement, however he always rejected any type of classification. As we look from this point in time, and the idealism behind each movement, spiritually he was the shadow of the Dada or Dada was the shadow of him because the influence was massive in both cases and it was through notorious ideas and bold movements.
Marcel Duchamp lived in NYC in central period of his life, he was working in the studio in Alelier Building from 1905 in no.33 West 67th street, in exchange for gifting one of his sculpture to the owners. His vision for the habitation was also a subject for inspiration to the architects from our era. For example the Ghost house was inspired by Duchamp concept of Guest + Host + Ghost. Christophe Berdaguer and Marie Pejus designed a huge architectural sculpture as direct result of this inspiration. It is situated near Nancy in France, and near border with Germany.
Duchamp’s mission was not only to present his own ideas and echos of the time and space around him and upcoming but also to dismantle the establishment, the institution and the criticism that was often destroying so much in the cause of history. He boldly ventured into convincing the population that artists are not some super humans with extraordinary gifts, that most of the population don’t have, but rather wanted to expose the core concepts behind the artworks.
One of possibly the most significant aspect of Duchamp’s legacy is the philosophy of art. One might think that anything can be a work of art, but is not the case, because art depends heavily on the context in which it was created, it is integral to the environment, it is an extension of consciousness, what art isn’t or what we are outgrowing from seems to be that it is not just purely an aesthetical value. We still have to evolve in order to get more people to understand this concept but eventually with the rise of technology and 21st century ruthlessly inviting for innovation and fresh thinking, it is possible that the life of art will change dramatically.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAlzBx24_vM His final piece that was released after his death and observed by the world only through the peepholes on the door
“You cannot define electricity. The same can be said of art. It is a kind of inner current in a human being, or something which needs no definition.” by Marcel Duchamp
