An abstract painting need in 50 years by no means look "abstract" any longer.
Marcel DuchampRead
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Duchamp suggests that artists are not fundamentally different from others and questions the traditional notion of creativity.
In this quote, Marcel Duchamp expresses skepticism about the commonly held belief that artists possess a unique creative function that sets them apart from everyone else. He implies that the label 'creation' may hold an appealing social connotation, but at its core, artistry is not about some extraordinary ability; rather, artists are just individuals who reflect human experience like anyone else.
Themes
CreationArtistArtistryFunctionHuman Experience
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion on artistic identity, this quote can help illustrate the idea that all human beings share similar creative capacities.
More from Marcel Duchamp
All quotes →All this twaddle, the existence of God, atheism, determinism, liberation, societies, death, etc., are pieces of a chess game called language, and they are amusing only if one does not preoccupy oneself with 'winning or losing this game of chess.
Marcel DuchampRead
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 DuchampRead
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 DuchampRead
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 DuchampRead
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 DuchampRead
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