Marcel Duchamp and the 20th Century Art

This show presents 75 works by Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968), the French-born artist who proposed an entirely different way of making art that is neither painting nor sculpture, juxtaposed with 78 works by 34 artists who have engaged with Duchamp's legacy from the latter half of the twentieth century through the present. It is an exhibition that explicitly poses the question, “What is art?”

Duchamp started out as a painter, quickly moving through the avant-garde styles of his time, from the innovations of Cézanne and Matisse through Cubism and Futurism. After the critical response by fellow artists to his Nu descendant un escalier [no2] (cat.no. 3) at the Salon des Indépendents in 1912, he turned away from painting and began thinking more deeply about the nature of art, coming up with completely new ideas. In 1917 he caused a major sensation by submitting a urinal under the title Fountain (cat.no. 33) to an exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists in New York (the work was rejected). By presenting readymade objects as works of art, Duchamp commented critically on the conventional belief that the artist must exhibit both creativity and skilled craftsmanship. His work revealed the narrowness of most people's views of art and the restrictiveness of a system of exclusive professionalism and taste that had come to define the nature of art. This approach ultimately cast new light on the issue of freedom in art.

Duchamp's unusual objects, as exemplified by La mariée mise à nu par ses célibataires, meme (cat. no. 9), the notes in which he recorded his observations and ideas, and his life itself became fertile sources for the development of subsequent generations of artists. Such movements as Pop Art, Neo-Dada, and Conceptual Art continued to pour out of the breach that he opened in the carapace of “art” with dramatic results. It is no exaggeration to describe Duchamp as a wellspring of ideas that even today's artis ts would do well to return to again and again.

Pressetext

Marcel Duchamp and the 20th Century Art