An abstract painting need in 50 years by no means look "abstract" any longer.
Marcel DuchampRead
The creative act is not performed by the artist alone; the spectator brings the work in contact with the external world by deciphering and interpreting its inner qualifications and thus adds his contribution to the creative act.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The audience plays a crucial role in the creation and interpretation of art.
Marcel Duchamp emphasizes that art is not solely the product of the artist's individual creativity; instead, it involves an interactive process between the artist and the spectator. The act of creation continues as the audience engages with the artwork, adding their interpretations and insights, thereby enriching the overall experience and meaning of the piece.
Themes
ArtCreationSpectatorInterpretationContribution
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a discussion about the role of the audience in art critique workshops.
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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