Hello, this is Masato Yamaguchi, a contemporary artist.
Today's topic is finally Marcel Duchamp
whom I send gratitude.
I selected two books here; "Dialogue with Marcel Duchamp"
"Marcel Duchamp Afternoon Interview".
They are very interesting.
For me, Duchamp is the god of art!
Who could exceed him actually?
Even Damian Hirst, or Jeff Koons can't.
Marcel Duchamp is the Magnificent Great Wall in the art world.
Without discussing Duchamp,
we cannot move to the next one.
So I managed to do this as soon as possible.
However actually,
giving an instant explanation is almost out of my hand.
His extreme stoic and wit,
his life of unshakable style to present...
It's as if he lived in another universe.
First of all, Let's look at his biography from "Artpedia".
1887-1968 He died at 81.
Marcel Duchamp, born in France
and a naturalized American in his late life.
Known as a painter, sculptor, and chess player. He loved playing chess.
Duchamp was deeply associated with Dadaism by editing a Dadaism magazine
and by presenting the conceptual art represented by "Fountain",
however not considered as an official member of Dadaists according to a detail research of his activity.
A deep relationship did not suit to his preference.
Therefor he kept a distance
from the artists group in the same period.
Duchamp claimed his art was not "anti-art", but "non-art".
In the beginning of the 20th century,
the opening era of Surrealism,
半芸術 未来主義というスタイルがありましたthey had a style called "anti-art", or "Futurism",
which denied the art itself.
On the other hand, according to this book,
Duchamp rather erased art, instead of denying it.
It was not a resistance against something already exists,
but removing the value of art.
He criticized something to please eyes, or "retinal art".
Retinal art means a visual art.
For Duchamp however, a visual is old-fashioned.
So he denied the old thought
that art is something attractive to eyes.
This triggered the conceptual art.
This is the legacy for the art scene today.
"Nude Descending A Staircase, No. 2" in 1914 is the last painting
because he put down his brush.
This is "Nude Descending A Staircase, No. 2", a Cubism painting,
known as his last painting.
After that, he took 6-7 years to create
an uncompleted work "The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even"
or "The Large Glass",
And "Ready-Made".
This is the most significant term.
One of the most famous piece is
a common urinal with "R. Mutt" on it.
A Ready-Made art is an art with materials which are "already made".
This is art, as Duchamp claimed.
until then, Surrealists like Andre Breton
sought the means of expressing the psychic movement
purely extracted from his mind.
Discovering the purest essence of psyche
was what Surrealists wanted to pursue.
According to Duchamp,
Andre Breton's practice is still "retinal".
Just developing arts to please eyes are less meaningful.
Despite surrealism was so revolutionary already,
Duchamp criticized it.
Now I'd like to pick up some of the most essential part,
the nature of Duchamp and his art works.
It leads to the explanation "not 'anti-art', but 
'non-art' "
This book describes the process to create and complete a Ready-Made art.
"Selecting something immediately leads
to the recognition of the nature or glimpse of art."
meaning when you judge a thing
whether it looks good or bad,
you already recognize its artistic value.
Such judgement will not occur with the Ready-Made.
Selection is a hard process actually.
An industrial object has a merit
because it is mechanically reproduced.
When it's repeatedly released by a machine,
the object loses its identity.
The characteristics of the object is removed.
However twenty thousands piece of industrial products
can't be a Ready-Made.
So through a vast time to selecting,
Duchamp sought an industrial thing
which he was not interested in at all.
As a result,
only 10 pieces of Ready-Mades were created in his life.
I remember my works called "Dot Samples"
it's inspired by an art
to capture insects like beetles in resin.
In my works, some arts on the Internet are picked up
and preserved it in an acrylic resin.
I thought the  behavior of selecting itself is an art.
But I knew it couldn't be a Ready-Made according to Duchamp.
Duchamp's philosophy went so far than what I have done.
He denied even the existence of art and its value.
The nature of Ready-Made is,
the meaninglessness of artwork.
Using something like a urinal resemble to a fountain
is just a superficial view.
The total destruction of artistic sense or expression
lies under his practice.
"What kind of yardstick do you use
to select something as a Ready-Made?"
-You have to be careful not to be deceived by its disguise.
-Selecting an object is very hard
-because it's unknown
whether it suits your preference or not a half year later.
-You have to reach the state of uninterest
in which there is no aesthetic pleasure.
He adopted something not interesting for him
as his artwork.
I wonder why he did this.
At that time, a question "what is the art?" rose suddenly.
Impressionist expressed the shifting lights.
The subjective view has increased.
Picasso and Braque invented Cubism,
a new method to transform the shape.
And is was adopted to express the psychic world.
In the rapid change,
Duchamp had his journey towards the ultimateness.
Neither art itself nor other artists
could not gather his attention.
He always took a "je-m'en-fichisme" stance of art.
Actually Duchamp's Ready-Made was
seldom evaluated properly
until the American artists
like Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns
of the 40-50s
became famous.
Before that Duchamp didn't receive a high evaluation.
According to this book,
he said that he was teaching French in NY to live on.
He spent a modest life
although he was born in a prosperous family.
His life as an artist didn't bring a fortune.
"As a general idea, we have to pay tax"
"which was not common in the past."
He was a thrift man perhaps.
He lived by the late 60s,
so it's almost a miracle
that he and other artists like Andy Warhol
shared their period of activity.
This interview was carried out
when artists including Warhol started their career.
Duchamp gave a brief explanation about Warhol.
Duchamp, who usually avoids a serious answer,
took a different attitude this time.
He showed some interests in the pop art.
When the interviewer asked him
whether he was interested in something in the 60s,
he replied like this; "The pop art and op art are very new."
I will explain about the op art later.
He was interested in the pop art and the op art.
However keep working on that style is boring, Duchamp said.
He said it would last for three decades or so.
The pop art which Warhol and other artists were doing
was pleasing for Duchamp.
Probably he liked its humor and ridiculousness.
And, this question is interesting.
He was asked the difference
between art in Paris and in the US.
He explained that the difference is small.
But America was comfortable for him.
The most attractive place will be, neither Paris nor NY
but Tokyo, as he forecasted.
It's true.
In the 60s,
the main land of art has shifted from Paris  to NY.
And it would see the second shifting- to Tokyo.
Well, regrettably he's prediction has not come true yet.
In my opinion,
Duchamp saw art as a game
and checkmated in the smartest way.
When he invented Ready-Made,
he carefully created some masterpieces
through time as long as he could take
and took a passive attitude to criticizing art  .
He was standing outside of a group of artists
and not interested in ridiculous things.
He favored a slow life.
By staying calm and quiet,
enhanced the impact of Ready-Made
till the end of his life.
The legacy is the Majestic Great Wall
that no one can overcome yet.
This large, invisible wall of his practice is
still growing majestically even today.
That what I learned from these books.
 
 
 
 
