Duchamp-isms

A collection of provocative quotations from one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century

Duchamp-isms is a selection of illuminating quotations from Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968), one of the most important figures in the history of modern art. A painter, sculptor, writer, and chess player, Duchamp changed the very definition of art with his “readymades”—everyday objects such as a bicycle wheel or bottle rack that he titled, signed, and presented as art. He provoked critics and the public with works such as the Cubist-Futurist painting Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2 (1912) and Fountain (1917), a readymade composed of a men’s urinal signed “R. Mutt.” Prizing the intellectual over the aesthetic, Duchamp inspired later movements like Minimalism, Conceptualism, and Pop Art. Delightful and witty, Duchamp-isms offers rich insights into the mind of a true icon of modern art.

The quotes in Duchamp-isms, drawn primarily from interviews, have been selected and introduced by Francis Naumann, a leading authority on Duchamp, and organized in eight thematic sections: philosophies of art; painting; Dada and Surrealism; the readymades; chess; literary influences; commercialism in art; and philosophies of life and death. The book also features a brief chronology of Duchamp’s life and career.
- “I have always had a horror of being a ‘professional’ painter. The minute you become that, you are lost.”- “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.”- “Art can never be adequately defined, because the translation of an aesthetic emotion into a verbal description is as inaccurate as your description of fear when you have been actually scared.”- “Art never saved the world. It cannot.”