Marcel Duchamp

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the life and work of Marcel Duchamp, focusing on his "readymades". This paper presents an overview of a making activity that can be developed in conjunction with the historical/critical discussion of Duchamp's readymades. The paper concludes with suggestions as to how these readymades can be turned into a useful classroom activity with the assistance of teacher guidance.

From the Paper:

"Overall, Duchamp's readymades engage humor, analogy in scale, shifts, and transitions in translating elements. They form representation of the physical and the conceptual transformations of urban landscape into maps. Duchamp started his series of readymades when he worked on objects resembling the Eiffel Tower and the Ferris Wheel. The Bottle Rack was among Duchamp's first readymades, transformed from its utilitarian origins by the artist's selection and signing of the object. The artist may not have made this bottle rack, but he displaced it and disallowed it of its utility. Its metal forms echo the cast-iron structure of the Eiffel Tower. Bottle Rack transforms a machine-made household object into a sculpture of equally strange metal forms."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Goldsmith, Steven. "The Readymades of Marcel Duchamp: The Ambiguities of an Aesthetic Revolution." The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 42.2 (1983): 197-208.
• Housefield, James. "Marcel Duchamp's Art and the Geography of Modern Paris." Geographical Review 92.4. (2002): 477-502.
• Paz, Octavio. Marcel Duchamp. Rachel Phillips and Donald Gardner (trans). New York: Viking Press, 1978.
• Skilbeck, Malcolm. Dewey, London: Collier Macmillan, 1970.
• Steefel, Lawrence, D., Jr. The Position of Duchamp's "Glass" in the Development of His Art. New York and London: Garland, 1977.

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