Final Essay

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Final Essay

Regarded as one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, Marcel Duchamp’s dramatic fame is a quintessential example of lasting recognition without the support of art critics and the art market. One of the pre-cursors of this fame was the development of art movements after the First World War. Duchamp was a dynamic part of the Dada movement, which revolved around the idea of challenging the norms of contemporary society. Examining the underpinnings of art in terms of martial practice, Duchamp scrutinized the structural framework of Conceptual art, Pop art, and other movements.

A very few artists can be attributed to essentially altering the course of art history the way Duchamp managed to do. Duchamp is rightly considered as the father of Conceptual art because he outright refused to follow a conventional path in art. All the conceptual artists started to associate their efforts with the traditions of Duchamp, who abandoned rarity and skill in his famous pieces, Readymades CITATION Gol83 \l 1033 (Goldsmith). The Conceptual art movement placed supreme stress on the apparent glimpses of conceptualism in all art. There was a considerable reduction of materialism in the works presented by the Conceptual artists, a phenomenon widely acclaimed and referred to as, ‘dematerialization’ CITATION Ber19 \l 1033 (Berger). Conceptual art is highly self-referential and Duchamp’s pieces manifest this attribute by pushing the limits of art using minimalistic techniques. Conceptual art is deeply anchored in the Dada movement which alludes to the notion that art is primarily in the idea of a particular object and the object’s importance begins to fade, once its concept has been expressed by the artist. Duchamp attacked the permanence and prevalent sacredness of art, reacting against the conformity of post-war art.

One of the main reasons behind his far-flung influence was that Duchamp was comparatively more concerned about the political capacity of an artist and chiefly stressed on the underlying mechanisms of those institutions which served for the creation of art. Duchamp’s examination of the social processes behind the production of art challenged the prevailing conception about the sanctity of art. In the post-war scenario regarding art, Duchamp contributed to the placement of art within a broadened discourse of structural, linguistic, and philosophical horizons CITATION Win17 \l 1033 (Winkenweder). Throughout the twentieth century, both artistic and cultural debates have been informed by Duchamp’s legacy in theoretical and philosophical senses. The art movements surfacing in the post-war time period were greatly influenced by Duchamp’s projects as he entirely disassembled art. This can also be traced back to the post-modernist notion which entails that there is a lack of inherent meaning in objects belonging to different categories and that the only meaning things contain is the one which is assigned to them by members of a specific society.

Dance, music, and visual arts in the 20th century were chiefly influenced by Marcel Duchamp as he was relentless in his pursuit of revealing the true essence of human experiences. In addition to the presentation of his own ideas mirroring the contemporary circumstances, Duchamp also strived to dismantle the established institutions that were working for the creation of art. He has greatly influenced many artists as he exposed the core beliefs behind many artworks and propagated that artists are mere ordinary humans. Furthermore, Marcel Duchamp also influenced Pop art, imparting that overexposure and multiplication of a product lead to a complete loss of its significance. This notion was a direct criticism of the capitalist lifestyle of the bourgeoisie class of that time CITATION Bai18 \l 1033 (Bailey).

Duchamp’s magnum opus is celebrated to date as his art prevailed over a lot of dimensions of the Dada movement and Futurism. Entirely ardent and descriptive about his Dadaist attitude; he successfully managed to revolt against the prevailing notion of artistic value and a penchant for finer taste, simultaneously advocating for art which was thought-provoking and greatly appealed to an individual’s thought process.

Works Cited:

BIBLIOGRAPHY Bailey, Bradley. "Before, During, and Beyond the Brillo Box: The Impact of Pop on the 1964 Edition of Duchamp’s Readymades." Visual Resources (2018): 347-363.

Berger, Christian. "Wholly Obsolete or Always a Possibility?: Past and Present Trajectories of a ‘Dematerialization’of Art."." Conceptualism and Materiality ( 2019): 15-53.

Goldsmith, Steven. "The readymades of Marcel Duchamp: The ambiguities of an aesthetic revolution." Aesthetics and Art Criticism (1983): 197-208.

Winkenweder, Brian. "Marcel Duchamp and the Perceptual Dimension of Conceptual Art." Art History as Social Praxis (2017): 69-76.