Influence of Marcel Duchamp on the Dadaist Movement
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This paper will discuss the influence that Marcel Duchamp had on the Dadaist movement in art. Dada originated in Paris and Zurich during the First World War. The despair of that war caused many Europeans to perceive a breakdown in the society of their time. This in turn led to the creation of Dada, a style of art which was paradoxically opposed to art. By seeking the destruction of art as they knew it, the European Dadaists made a statement about their world, which was apparently crumbling down around them. At approximately the same time in history, the concept of Dada was also being introduced in the United States by way of New York City. Although they were not directly involved in the war, the New York Dadaists still rejected the traditional values of the art world. This rejection was accompanied by a sense of humor, and their art often utilized elements of nonsense in order to make a statement about the absurd conditions of modern life while simultaneously making a protest against art itself. Thus, "Dada filled its statements with incoherence, on the grounds that life itself is incoherent, and played havoc with art because art lovers had lost the idea of art as a game" (ALexandrian 31). Although he was born in France, Marcel Duchamp was an important leader of the New York Dada movement. Born in 1887, Duchamp began painting at an early age. His earliest artistic influence was that of Cubism, as seen in the work of Picasso. This influence is clearly evident in D
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"ready-made" in 1915, shortly after he arrived in New York. However, the first actual ready-made is his 1913 work Bicycle Wheel, which consists of an upside down bicycle wheel mounted on a stool. In 1914, Duchamp exhibited another early ready-made with Bottle-Rack. However, his most famous ready-mades were created after Duchamp came to the United States in 1915. In many cases, Duchamp's ready-mades of that period were simple everyday objects which he gave elaborate titles to. He often wrote the words of the title upon the object itself. Examples of such titled works can be seen in Duchamp's Two or Three Drops of Height Have Nothing to Do with Savagery (a comb) and In Advance of a Broken Arm (a snow shovel). The use of titles such as these was important in Duchamp's work because he "was always a verbal and conceptual artist" (Green 225). The conceptual idea seen here is that words have a profound impact on human consciousness. Specifically, Duchamp showed that giving an elaborate title to a common object was all that was needed to qualify that object as a work of art.
Duchamp's most notorious ready-made was his 1917 work entitled Fountain. This was a urinal which had been turned upside down. It was signed with the nam
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Approximate Word count = 1325
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)
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