Marcel Duchamp Quotes

Powerful Marcel Duchamp for Daily Growth

About Marcel Duchamp

Marcel Duchamp (July 28, 1887 – October 2, 1968) was a French-American visual artist whose work played a significant role in the development of conceptual art. Known for his innovative ideas and unconventional approach to art, he is often referred to as one of the most important artists of the 20th century. Born in Mulhouse, Alsace (then part of the German Empire), Duchamp immigrated to the United States in 1915. His early works were characterized by Cubism and Fauvism influences, including his famous painting "Nude Descending a Staircase" (1912). However, it was his later works that truly defined his career. In 1917, Duchamp unveiled one of his most iconic pieces, "Fountain," an ordinary urinal signed with the pseudonym R. Mutt. This provocative work sparked a debate about what constitutes art, and it remains one of the most influential artworks of the 20th century. Duchamp's 'Readymades' were also groundbreaking. These were everyday objects that he selected and signed, transforming them into works of art. Examples include "Bottle Rack" (1914) and "Bicycle Wheel" (1913). In 1923, Duchamp moved to Paris, where he met the likes of Man Ray, Picabia, and Francis Picabia, and began working on the 'Large Glass,' an intricate piece that was never fully completed. He returned to America in 1948 and lived there until his death in 1968. Marcel Duchamp's influence extends beyond the art world, as he challenged traditional notions of creativity and pushed the boundaries of what can be considered art. His legacy continues to inspire artists today.

Interpretations of Popular Quotes

"The creative act is not performed by the artist alone; the spectator brings the work in contact with the outside world by finishing it."

Marcel Duchamp's quote suggests that the creative process isn't solely dependent on the artist, but also involves the audience or viewer. The interpretation is that a work of art only achieves its full potential when encountered by someone who engages with it, completing the piece by bringing their unique perspective and experiences to it. This interaction between artist and viewer gives meaning and life to the artwork, making it an ever-evolving conversation rather than a static object.

"Art is mysterious, but we mustn't make a mystery out of art."

Marcel Duchamp suggests that art should be appreciated for its inherent qualities rather than shrouding it in unnecessary complexity or mystique. He encourages viewers to approach art with an open mind, understanding its essence without creating unnecessary barriers through excessive analysis or speculation. Art's beauty and meaning lie within its simplicity, not in the mystery surrounding it.

"The only works of art which are good are those which spontaneously continue the thought of their author."

This quote by Marcel Duchamp suggests that a work of art is successful when it not only reflects the artist's intention but also stimulates further thought in the viewer, continuing the creative process beyond the original creation. In other words, a good piece of art should spark curiosity, provoke reflection, and encourage the audience to engage with and interpret it in their own unique way, thus continuing the artistic dialogue started by the author.

"In order to be good an artist should be a little mad, and be able to remain sane long enough to finish whatever it is he starts."

This quote suggests that artistic genius often involves a measure of unconventional thinking or "madness", which allows artists to challenge the status quo and push boundaries. However, they must maintain their sanity, or rationality, long enough to bring their ideas to fruition and create meaningful works of art. In essence, Duchamp is encouraging a balance between creativity and practicality in artistic expression.

"Everything in the world that is beautiful and good lives foremost in the soul, and is there for its own sake, not for the sake of something else."

This quote by Marcel Duchamp highlights the inherent value and beauty found within one's inner self. He suggests that true beauty and goodness reside primarily within the human soul, existing for their intrinsic worth, rather than serving as a means to an end or for external validation. In essence, Duchamp encourages us to recognize and cherish the beauty and goodness within ourselves, as it is the foundation for personal fulfillment and meaningful experiences in life.

I have forced myself to contradict myself in order to avoid conforming to my own taste.

- Marcel Duchamp

Myself, My Own, Forced, Contradict

I came to feel an artist might use anything - a dot, a line, the most conventional or unconventional symbol - t say what he wanted to say.

- Marcel Duchamp

Artist, Might, Symbol, Dot

Things were sort of Bohemian in Montmartre - one lived, one painted, one was a painter - all that doesn't mean anything, fundamentally.

- Marcel Duchamp

Anything, Sort, Painted, Fundamentally

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 Duchamp

Conscience, Been, Became, Librarian

'Art or anti-art?' was the question I asked when I returned from Munich in 1912 and decided to abandon pure painting or painting for its own sake. I thought of introducing elements alien to painting as the only way out of a pictorial and chromatic dead end.

- Marcel Duchamp

Thought, Dead, Own, Asked

In the 'Nude Descending a Staircase,' I wanted to create a static image of movement: movement is an abstraction, a deduction articulated within the painting, without our knowing if a real person is or isn't descending an equally real staircase.

- Marcel Duchamp

Within, Image, Equally, Static

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 Duchamp

Got, Methods, Subconsciously, Accompany

When I put a bicycle wheel on a stool, the fork down, there was no idea of a 'ready-made' or anything else. It was just a distraction. I didn't have any special reason to do it, or any intention of showing it or describing anything.

- Marcel Duchamp

Reason, Stool, Ready-Made, Describing

There was an incident, in 1912, which 'gave me a turn,' so to speak: when I brought the 'Nude Descending a Staircase' to the Independants, and they asked me to withdraw it before the opening.

- Marcel Duchamp

Before, Which, Brought, Descending

My stay in Munich was the scene of my complete liberation.

- Marcel Duchamp

Stay, Munich, Complete, Liberation

Everything important that I have done can be put into a little suitcase.

- Marcel Duchamp

Important, Done, Everything, Suitcase

It is a matter of great indifference to me what criticism is printed in the papers and the magazines. I am simply working out my own ideas in my own way.

- Marcel Duchamp

Own, Indifference, My Own, Printed

Man can never expect to start from scratch; he must start from ready-made things, like even his own mother and father.

- Marcel Duchamp

Like, Mother And Father, Scratch

The danger is in pleasing an immediate public: the immediate public that comes around you and takes you in and accepts you and gives you success and everything. Instead of that, you should wait for fifty years or a hundred years for your true public. That is the only public that interests me.

- Marcel Duchamp

Wait, Hundred, Accepts, Pleasing

I'm nothing else but an artist, I'm sure, and delighted to be.

- Marcel Duchamp

Artist, Sure, Else, Delighted

I am afraid to end up being in need to sell canvases - in other words, to be a society painter.

- Marcel Duchamp

Need, Other, Sell, In Other Words

What art is, in reality, is this missing link, not the links which exist. It's not what you see that is art; art is the gap.

- Marcel Duchamp

Art, Exist, Which, Missing

Rational intelligence is dangerous and leads to ratiocination. The painter is a medium who doesn't realize what he is doing. No translation can express the mystery of sensibility, a word, still unreliable, which is nevertheless the basis of painting or poetry, like a kind of alchemy.

- Marcel Duchamp

Doing, Express, Nevertheless, Translation

Artists of all times are like the gamblers of Monte Carlo, and this blind lottery allows some to succeed and ruins others. In my opinion, neither the winners nor the losers are worth worrying about.

- Marcel Duchamp

Blind, Some, Gamblers, Ruins

I refused to accept anything, doubted everything. So, doubting everything, I had to find something that had not existed before, something I had not thought of before. Any idea that came to me, the thing would be to turn it around and try to see it with another set of senses.

- Marcel Duchamp

Thought, Before, Doubted, Doubting

Gravity is not controlled physically in us by one of the 5 ordinary senses. We always reduce a gravity experience to an autocognizance, real or imagined, registered inside us in the region of the stomach.

- Marcel Duchamp

Always, Senses, Reduce, Registered

I happen to have been born a Cartesian. The French education is based on a sequence of strict logic. You carry it with you.

- Marcel Duchamp

Happen, Been, Based, Sequence

In French, there is an old expression, la patte, meaning the artist's touch, his personal style, his 'paw'. I wanted to get away from la patte and from all that retinal painting.

- Marcel Duchamp

Artist, Expression, Away, French

Since the tubes of paint used by the artist are manufactured and ready-made products, we must conclude that all the paintings in the world are 'ready-mades aided' and also works of assemblage.

- Marcel Duchamp

Artist, Ready-Made, Works, Assemblage

The curious thing about the Ready-Made is that I've never been able to arrive at a definition or explanation that fully satisfies me. There's still magic in the idea, so I'd rather keep it that way than try to be exoteric about it.

- Marcel Duchamp

Magic, Been, Rather, Satisfies

The last hundred years have been retinal; even the cubists were. The surrealists tried to free themselves, and earlier so had the dadaists, but unfortunately, these latter were nihilists and didn't produce enough to prove their point, which, by the way, they didn't have to prove - according to their theory.

- Marcel Duchamp

Prove, Been, Hundred, Hundred Years

There is something like an explosion in the meaning of certain words: they have a greater value than their meaning in the dictionary.

- Marcel Duchamp

Like, Dictionary, Explosion, Meaning Of

I shy away from the word 'creation.' In the ordinary, social meaning of the word - well, it's very nice, but fundamentally, I don't believe in the creative function of the artist. He's a man like any other.

- Marcel Duchamp

Other, Away, Very, Meaning Of

Art is a habit-forming drug. Art has absolutely no existence as veracity, as truth. People always speak of it with this great, religious reverence, but why should it be so revered?

- Marcel Duchamp

Always, Religious, Revered, Veracity

Words such as truth, art, veracity, or anything are stupid in themselves.

- Marcel Duchamp

Truth, Art, Stupid, Veracity

All painting, beginning with Impressionism, is antiscientific, even Seurat. I was interested in introducing the precise and exact aspect of science, which hadn't often been done, or at least hadn't been talked about very much.

- Marcel Duchamp

Been, Very, Which, Precise

If only America would realize that the art of Europe is finished - dead - and that America is the country of the art of the future, instead of trying to base everything she does on European traditions!

- Marcel Duchamp

Art, Country, European, Base

My Ready-Mades have nothing to do with the 'objet trouve' because the so-called 'found object' is completely directed by personal taste. Personal taste decides that this is a beautiful object and is unique.

- Marcel Duchamp

Nothing, Taste, Directed, So-Called

One is a painter because one wants so-called freedom; one doesn't want to go to the office every morning.

- Marcel Duchamp

Freedom, Want, Painter, So-Called

If your choice enters into it, then taste is involved - bad taste, good taste, uninteresting taste. Taste is the enemy of art, A-R-T.

- Marcel Duchamp

Art, Bad, Good Taste, Uninteresting

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.

- Marcel Duchamp

Very, Craftsmen, Prefer, Frame

In the beginning, the cubists broke up form without even knowing they were doing it. Probably the compulsion to show multiple sides of an object forced us to break the object up - or, even better, to project a panorama that unfolded different facets of the same object.

- Marcel Duchamp

Beginning, Doing, Forced, Panorama

In the midst of each epoch, I fully realize that a new epoch will dawn.

- Marcel Duchamp

New, Will, Midst, Fully

Painting is a language of its own. You cannot interpret one form of expression with another form of expression.

- Marcel Duchamp

Painting, Expression, Form, Interpret

The basis for my own work during the years just before coming to America in 1915 was a desire to break up forms - to 'decompose' them much along the lines the cubists had done. But I wanted to go further - much further - in fact, in quite another direction altogether.

- Marcel Duchamp

Fact, Own, Before, Forms

I wanted to use my possibility to be an individual, and I suppose I have, no?

- Marcel Duchamp

Individual, Use, Wanted, Possibility

Marcel, no more painting; go get a job.

- Marcel Duchamp

Painting, More, Get, Marcel

One does not contemplate it like a picture. The idea of contemplation disappears completely. Simply take note that it's a bottle rack, or that it's a bottle rack that has changed its destination... It's not the visual question of the readymade that counts; it's the fact that it exists, even.

- Marcel Duchamp

Fact, Note, Rack, Changed

I didn't abandon everything at a moment's notice - on the contrary. I returned to France from America, leaving the 'Large Glass' unfinished.

- Marcel Duchamp

Moment, Glass, Large, On The Contrary

I couldn't go into the haphazard drawing or the paintings, the splashing of paint. I wanted to go back to a completely dry drawing, a dry conception of art.

- Marcel Duchamp

Art, Go, Haphazard, Conception

I was highly attracted to chess for forty or forty-five years; then, little by little, my enthusiasm lessened.

- Marcel Duchamp

Enthusiasm, Chess, Attracted, Highly

I haven't been in the Louvre for twenty years. It doesn't interest me because I have these doubts about the value of the judgments which decided that all these pictures should be presented to the Louvre instead of others which weren't even considered.

- Marcel Duchamp

Been, About, Considered, Twenty

Why are all the artists so dead-set on distorting? It seems to be a reaction against photography, but I'm not sure.

- Marcel Duchamp

Reaction, Against, Sure, Distorting

I am against the word 'anti' because it's a little bit like 'atheist,' as compared to 'believer.' And an atheist is just as much of a religious man as the believer is.

- Marcel Duchamp

Against, Like, Religious, Just As Much

Alchemy is a kind of philosophy: a kind of thinking that leads to a way of understanding.

- Marcel Duchamp

Understanding, Kind, Leads, Alchemy

In chess, there are some extremely beautiful things in the domain of movement, but not in the visual domain. It's the imagining of the movement or of the gesture that makes the beauty in this case.

- Marcel Duchamp

Beauty, Chess, Some, Case

I don't believe in art. I believe in artists.

- Marcel Duchamp

Art, Believe, Artists, I Believe

The 'Glass' is not my autobiography, nor is it self-expression. Far from it.

- Marcel Duchamp

Glass, Far, Nor, Self-Expression

Painter after painter, since the beginning of the century, has tended toward abstraction. First, the Impressionists simplified the landscape in terms of color, and then the Fauves simplified it again by adding distortion, which, for some reason, is a characteristic of our century.

- Marcel Duchamp

Reason, Some, Which, Simplified

Words are the tools of 'to be' - of expression. They are completely built on the fact that you 'are,' and in order to express it, you have built a little alphabet, and you make your words from it.

- Marcel Duchamp

Fact, Expression, Built, Order

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 Duchamp

Art, Chess, Still, Purer

Since Courbet, it's been believed that painting is addressed to the retina. That was everyone's error. The retinal shudder! Before, painting had other functions: it could be religious, philosophical, moral... our whole century is completely retinal, except for the Surrealists, who tried to go outside it somewhat.

- Marcel Duchamp

Other, Been, Religious, Believed

When the vision of the 'Nude' flashed upon me, I knew that it would break forever the enslaving chains of Naturalism.

- Marcel Duchamp

Chains, Break, Knew, Naturalism

The great problem was the selection of the readymade. I needed to choose an object without it impressing me: that is to say, without it providing any sort of aesthetic delectation. Moreover, I needed to reduce my own personal taste to absolute zero.

- Marcel Duchamp

Aesthetic, Needed, Providing, Object

When cubism began to take a social form, Metzinger was especially talked about. He explained cubism, while Picasso never explained anything. It took a few years to see that not talking was better than talking too much.

- Marcel Duchamp

Talking, Explained, About, Picasso

The entire world of art has reached such a low level, it has been commercialized to such a degree that art and everything related to it has become one of the most trivial activities of our epoch.

- Marcel Duchamp

Art, Level, Been, Reached

One must pass through the network of influence. One is obligated to be influenced, and one accepts this influence very naturally. From the start, one doesn't realize this. The first thing to know: one doesn't realize one is influenced. One thinks he is already liberated, and one is far from it!

- Marcel Duchamp

Through, Influenced, Very, Realize

In France, in Europe, the young artists of any generation always act as grandsons of some great man - Poussin, for example, or Victor Hugo. They can't help it. Even if they don't believe in that, it gets in their system. And so when they come to produce something of their own, the tradition is nearly indestructible.

- Marcel Duchamp

Young, Some, Hugo, Victor

Humor and laughter - not necessarily derogatory derision - are my pet tools. This may come from my general philosophy of never taking the world too seriously - for fear of dying of boredom.

- Marcel Duchamp

Boredom, May, Derogatory, Taking

When you make a painting, even abstract, there is always a sort of necessary filling-in.

- Marcel Duchamp

Painting, Always, Necessary, Abstract

Dada was an extreme protest against the physical side of painting. It was a metaphysical attitude.

- Marcel Duchamp

Painting, Metaphysical, Side, Extreme

I was never interested in looking at myself in an aesthetic mirror. My intention was always to get away from myself, though I knew perfectly well that I was using myself. Call it a little game between 'I' and 'me.'

- Marcel Duchamp

Mirror, Aesthetic, Always, Intention

It is curious to note how fragile the memory is, even for the important times in one's life. This is, moreover, what explains the fortunate fantasy of history.

- Marcel Duchamp

Memory, Curious, Note, Moreover

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 Duchamp

Product, Give, Poles, Latter

I would have to think about it for two or three months before I decided to do something which would have meaning. And it would have to be more than just an impression or pleasure. I would need an objective, a meaning. That is the only thing that could help me.

- Marcel Duchamp

Two, The Only Thing, Before, Objective

The individual - man as a man, man as a brain, if you like - interests me more than what he makes because I've noticed that most artists only repeat themselves.

- Marcel Duchamp

More, Individual, Like, Interests

What am I? Do I know? I am a man: quite simply, a 'breather.'

- Marcel Duchamp

I Am, Know, Quite, Simply

I like living, breathing better than working... Each second, each breath is a work which is inscribed nowhere, which is neither visual nor cerebral. It's a kind of constant euphoria.

- Marcel Duchamp

Living, Constant, Which, Breath

For me, the 'Three Stoppages' was a first gesture liberating me from the past.

- Marcel Duchamp

Past, Me, Three, Liberating

Tradition is the great misleader because it's too easy to follow what has already been done - even though you may think you're giving it a kick. I was really trying to invent, instead of merely expressing myself.

- Marcel Duchamp

Giving, Been, Too, Expressing

Distortion came first from the fauves, who, in turn, were under the strong influence of primitive art.

- Marcel Duchamp

Art, Strong, Primitive, Came

A game of chess is a visual and plastic thing, and if it isn't geometric in the static sense of the word, it is mechanical, since it moves. It's a drawing; it's a mechanical reality.

- Marcel Duchamp

Game, Chess, Static, Since

There does not exist a painter who knows himself or knows what he is doing.

- Marcel Duchamp

Himself, Exist, Painter, Knows

My position is the lack of a position, but, of course, you can't even talk about it; the minute you talk, you spoil the whole game.

- Marcel Duchamp

Game, About, Whole, Minute

I am interested in ideas, not merely in visual products.

- Marcel Duchamp

I Am, Ideas, Visual, Merely

A painting that doesn't shock isn't worth painting.

- Marcel Duchamp

Painting, Worth, Shock

Chess can be described as the movement of pieces eating one another.

- Marcel Duchamp

Eating, Chess, Another, Pieces

You have to approach something with indifference, as if you had no aesthetic emotion. The choice of readymades is always based on visual indifference and, at the same time, on the total absence of good or bad taste.

- Marcel Duchamp

Aesthetic, Always, Based, Choice

I really had no program or any established plan. I didn't even ask myself if I should sell my paintings or not.

- Marcel Duchamp

Myself, Sell, Established, Plan

From a purely ethnological point of view, I was not a period-born Dada.

- Marcel Duchamp

Point Of View, Point, Purely, View

Living is more a question of what one spends than what one makes.

- Marcel Duchamp

Living, More, Than, Question

Art doesn't interest me. Only artists interest me.

- Marcel Duchamp

Art, Me, Interest, Artists

Can works be made which are not 'of art'?

- Marcel Duchamp

Art, Which, Works, Made

Art is all a matter of personality.

- Marcel Duchamp

Art, Matter, Personality

What would I do with money? I have enough for my needs. I don't want any more. If I had a lot, I would have to care for it, worry about it.

- Marcel Duchamp

Want, More, Needs, Worry

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