THE RIDDLE OF DUCHAMP
The term art is widely interpreted to denote a form of self-expression, through which the artist bares themselves momentarily in their work. Several layers of separation exist between what is represented and what is received by the audience. Objectively, an artist’s representation of a subject is influenced by the subject itself, the way in which the subject is perceived by the artist, and the way in which the artist wishes to portray their interpretation. When viewed, the work of art is interpreted by the audience through a mindset shaped by perspective. In the end, what is transferred from the subject to the audience is an expression of both the creator and the beholder.
Marcel Duchamp was a particularly interesting artist because of his profound view of the artistic landscape. Duchamp’s series of readymades represent a cynical retort to the contemporary view of artistic expression. According to Krauss [Krauss 70], the readymades were a response to a play entitled Impressions of Africa, in which the playwright shows machines mindlessly creating great works of art. While the artwork itself is still a representation, it no longer carries with it the meaning added by the perception or intentions of the artist. Thus devoid, is it still art? Duchamp attempted to answer this question by transposing typical industrial objects from the world of the commonplace into the artistic realm. No creative effort was put into shaping the object. Several examples are Bicycle Wheel (1913), Bottle Dryer (1914), and Fountain (1917).
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| Bicycle Wheel | Fountain | Bottle Dryer |
In all of the readymades, the subject under Duchamp’s scrutiny is not directly represented in the work. The subject is the nature of art itself, and the readymades are the vehicle by which the current interpretation of art is challenged. When one looks at an upside down urinal, as in Fountain, it doesn’t come across as a work of art. The artist hasn’t put any effort into creating the urinal, other than signing his name to it. As Krauss puts it, “For the meaning of most art objects is lodged within a mesh of ideas and feelings held by the creator of the work, passed through the act of authorship into the work…” [Krauss 76]. Fountain lacks this obvious meaning, leaving the viewer grasping for an explanation. The genius of Duchamp is that this yearning for an explanation is the very subject of the work.
Duchamp is interesting because he questioned the conventional necessity of baring oneself in artwork, and expressed this curiosity by causing others to feel the same question. Typically, the subject is severely distorted by both the creator and the beholder because of an attempted likeness. In the case of the readymades, the physical manifestation of the subject bares no resemblance. Rather, it is the lack of an obvious resemblance which causes the beholder to feel the cynicism which Duchamp intends. This is only possible because of the lack of physical similarity. Had Duchamp made the sculpture by hand, the subject would be overwhelmed by the thousands of design choices, each of which could have a hidden meaning that must be interpreted by the viewer. The readymade obviously required no design decisions, except that of why.
Products of random chance lent themselves equally well to Duchamp’s deviations. 3 Standard Stoppages was created as described by Duchamp: “A metre of straight thread, horizontal, that fell from a height of one metre” [Cabanne 89]. The resulting configuration of thread was then preserved in plate glass. The only design decision was to subject the thread to the whims of chance, and to suggest an artistic value to the results.
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| 3 Standard Stoppages | By: Paul Yang |
Paul Yang, in an untitled work, uses a similar technique to count from one to one hundred. Rather than specifying the exact layout of the entire work, Yang leaves the choice of numbers to a random number generator. Yang’s only design decision was to leave the creation of his work to chance, and to present it as art. Much like the readymades, the power of this technique is that without any inherent meaning in the form, the only thing available to analyze is the legitimacy of the work.
Besides playing with the question of “what is art”, Duchamp also had fun with representing motion. In reality, motion is a combination of space and time. Krauss suggests that unlike poetry, art exists strictly in space rather than also in time [Krauss 3]. Her argument is that art is laid out before the observer statically, and does not change. If art could move, it would suddenly begin to exist in time as well.
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| Nude Descending a Staircase No. 2 |
Duchamp refused to be content with purely static art, and began experimenting with ways of representing motion. Perhaps the most famous example of this theme is Nude Descending a Staircase no. 2. According to Pierre Cabanne, a notion of how to represent motion may have been brought to Duchamp in the work of Etienne-Jules Marey, who in 1894 published a book called Movement [Cabanne 56]. One particular work in this book, entitled Chronophotographs of a Man Moving, depicts motion by compositing photographs of a man running taken at regular intervals. This generates a similar effect to persistence of vision, except that the time factor is introduced by the eye traversing the page. Nude Descending a Staircase takes full advantage of this technique by depicting a figure descending a staircase as a series of figures, each of which is located on a different step in a different pose. The mind is able to interpolate the motion which must have occurred between steps, instantly making the figure very dynamic. Duchamp has seen motion, chosen to represent it in a strobe-flash manner, and the reader has interpreted those images to convey motion.
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| Adrienne the Runner Descending The Hill |
Many of the class works have a certain quality about them which convey motion through static images, using several techniques. Adrienne Bolger’s Adrienne the Runner Descending The Hill uses a stroboscopic repetition to convey motion. Unlike most of the class works of this style, however, the images do not identically repeat. Each successive runner has a left arm which becomes longer and longer, making each individual repetition appear dynamic. Nude Descending a Staircase takes advantage of this effect by varying the repeated image on each stair.
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| Nude Running Like Hell |
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| The Face In Motion |
Brian Demers has a different take on motion. His Nude Running Like Hell does not repeat over and over, but instead is one image with a blur mimicking the eye’s perception of an object moving at high speed. While the kinematics of Demers' nude is less clear than that of Adrienne’s work, it still manages to escape its static medium. The Face In Motion, by Eric Fogg, uses an entirely different idea to equal effect. The individual components of the face are askew with each other, creating a sense of dynamic unbalance. I like this piece because it seems like the face is coming together, or moving along like a pack of dogs held together by strings.
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| Duchamp(ian) Portrait |
Kevin Wang’s Duchamp(ian) Portrait uniquely hits upon a particular fascination of Duchamp: the fourth dimension. Duchamp envisioned that as a three dimensional object casts a 2D shadow, the 3D objects themselves are merely shadows of 4th dimensional objects invisible to us [Cabanne 82]. Wang uses the common stroboscopic method to create motion, but does so by repeating images of a three-dimensional face. When compared with the typically two-dimensional representations of a three-dimensional subject, Wang’s work could be interpreted to hint at a fourth dimension.
Duchamp had a way of asking poignant questions which he delivered directly to his audience through his work. His use of pre-made constructs, which he termed readymades, allowed him to convey a message without the distortion imposed on art by deliberate design. Duchamp challenged us to question the concept of art itself, and suggests that the answer is in the question.
Bibiography
Krauss, Rosalind E. Passages in Modern Sculpture
Cabanne, Pierre. Duchamp & Co.