I believe that a picture, a work of art, lives and dies just as we do. Marcel Duchamp More Quotes by Marcel Duchamp More Quotes From Marcel Duchamp A painting that doesn't shock isn't worth painting. Marcel Duchamp worth painting shock Art is all a matter of personality. Marcel Duchamp personality matter art 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 great me aesthetic problem 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 never me magic way 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 see you reality art 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 beautiful-things beautiful beauty Alchemy is a kind of philosophy: a kind of thinking that leads to a way of understanding. Marcel Duchamp understanding philosophy way thinking 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 everyone me life art 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 pictures value others me 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 question picture like destination Man can never expect to start from scratch; he must start from ready-made things, like even his own mother and father. Marcel Duchamp man mother-and-father mother father 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 staircase me opening speak 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 better like living work 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 image person painting real 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 humor pet fear world Marcel, no more painting; go get a job. Marcel Duchamp more job go painting 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 down bicycle special reason Everything important that I have done can be put into a little suitcase. Marcel Duchamp little everything important done 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 plastic drawing reality
