Authors: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

110 Famous Quotes By Marcel Duchamp That Will Paint Your Life With Rainbow Colors

Famous As: French Painter, Sculptor, Chess Player and Writer
Born On: July 28, 1887
Died On: October 2, 1968
Born In: Blainville-Crevon, France
Died At Age: 81
Marcel Duchamp was a well-known French painter, sculptor, and writer known for his unconventional works. He was interested in arts since childhood and by the time he stepped into teenage he started painting remarkably and started exhibiting his paintings at famous art galleries. He went on to make various paintings before the most controversial painting of his career, the ‘Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2’. This painting faced rejection but was finally exhibited in the ‘Armory Show’ where it became the center of attraction. He further took a short break to make one of the notable paintings of his career ‘3 Standard Stoppages’. He further went on to create art with everyday objects and made his first ‘readymade’ work called ‘Bottle Rack’ which was made with a bottle. He further made many such realistic arts but the most notable one was ‘The Large Glass’. He made this in a period of eight years and is made in such a way that each piece has a hidden meaning. We have compiled the famous quotes and sayings by the ambidextrous artist. Go through the collection of quotations and thoughts by Marcel Duchamp, the man aspired to use art in order to serve the mind.
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I force myself to contradict myself in order to avoid conforming to my own taste.

I force myself to contradict myself in order to avoid conforming to my own taste.

Marcel Duchamp
Tradition is the great misleader because it's too easy to follow what has already been done - even though you may think you're giving it a kick. I was really trying to invent, instead of merely expressing myself.

Tradition is the great misleader because it's too easy to follow what has already been done - even though you may think you're giving it a kick. I was really trying to invent, instead of merely expressing myself.

Marcel Duchamp
A painting that doesn't shock isn't worth painting.

A painting that doesn't shock isn't worth painting.

Marcel Duchamp
I am against the word 'anti' because it's a little bit like 'atheist,' as compared to 'believer.' And an atheist is just as much of a religious man as the believer is.

I am against the word 'anti' because it's a little bit like 'atheist,' as compared to 'believer.' And an atheist is just as much of a religious man as the believer is.

Marcel Duchamp
Words are the tools of 'to be' - of expression. They are completely built on the fact that you 'are,' and in order to express it, you have built a little alphabet, and you make your words from it.

Words are the tools of 'to be' - of expression. They are completely built on the fact that you 'are,' and in order to express it, you have built a little alphabet, and you make your words from it.

Marcel Duchamp
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.

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
I am interested in ideas, not merely in visual products.

I am interested in ideas, not merely in visual products.

Marcel Duchamp
I don't believe in art. I believe in artists.

I don't believe in art. I believe in artists.

Marcel Duchamp
It is a matter of great indifference to me what criticism is printed in the papers and the magazines. I am simply working out my own ideas in my own way.

It is a matter of great indifference to me what criticism is printed in the papers and the magazines. I am simply working out my own ideas in my own way.

Marcel Duchamp
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.

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
I was never interested in looking at myself in an aesthetic mirror. My intention was always to get away from myself, though I knew perfectly well that I was using myself. Call it a little game between 'I' and 'me.'

I was never interested in looking at myself in an aesthetic mirror. My intention was always to get away from myself, though I knew perfectly well that I was using myself. Call it a little game between 'I' and 'me.'

Marcel Duchamp

One must pass through the network of influence. One is obligated to be influenced, and one accepts this influence very naturally. From the start, one doesn't realize this. The first thing to know: one doesn't realize one is influenced. One thinks he is already liberated, and one is far from it!

Marcel Duchamp
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.

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
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.

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 Duchamp
Marcel, no more painting; go get a job.

Marcel, no more painting; go get a job.

Marcel Duchamp

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

The last hundred years have been retinal; even the cubists were. The surrealists tried to free themselves, and earlier so had the dadaists, but unfortunately, these latter were nihilists and didn't produce enough to prove their point, which, by the way, they didn't have to prove - according to their theory.

Marcel Duchamp

'Art or anti-art?' was the question I asked when I returned from Munich in 1912 and decided to abandon pure painting or painting for its own sake. I thought of introducing elements alien to painting as the only way out of a pictorial and chromatic dead end.

Marcel Duchamp

In France, in Europe, the young artists of any generation always act as grandsons of some great man - Poussin, for example, or Victor Hugo. They can't help it. Even if they don't believe in that, it gets in their system. And so when they come to produce something of their own, the tradition is nearly indestructible.

Marcel Duchamp

I refused to accept anything, doubted everything. So, doubting everything, I had to find something that had not existed before, something I had not thought of before. Any idea that came to me, the thing would be to turn it around and try to see it with another set of senses.

Marcel Duchamp
My stay in Munich was the scene of my complete liberation.

My stay in Munich was the scene of my complete liberation.

Marcel Duchamp
My position is the lack of a position, but, of course, you can't even talk about it; the minute you talk, you spoil the whole game.

My position is the lack of a position, but, of course, you can't even talk about it; the minute you talk, you spoil the whole game.

Marcel Duchamp
Everything important that I have done can be put into a little suitcase.

Everything important that I have done can be put into a little suitcase.

Marcel Duchamp
What am I? Do I know? I am a man: quite simply, a 'breather.'

What am I? Do I know? I am a man: quite simply, a 'breather.'

Marcel Duchamp

Rational intelligence is dangerous and leads to ratiocination. The painter is a medium who doesn't realize what he is doing. No translation can express the mystery of sensibility, a word, still unreliable, which is nevertheless the basis of painting or poetry, like a kind of alchemy.

Marcel Duchamp

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
The 'Glass' is not my autobiography, nor is it self-expression. Far from it.

The 'Glass' is not my autobiography, nor is it self-expression. Far from it.

Marcel Duchamp
Painting is a language of its own. You cannot interpret one form of expression with another form of expression.

Painting is a language of its own. You cannot interpret one form of expression with another form of expression.

Marcel Duchamp

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
Can works be made which are not 'of art'?

Can works be made which are not 'of art'?

Marcel Duchamp