Marcel Duchamp was an extraordinary artist and art theorist who is most famous for his conceptual art and unique vision of the meaning of art. His works undoubtedly influenced 20th-century art and caused a wave of both outrage and inspiration in several generations of artists. Duchamp aspired to challenge the idea of what art is and who is an artist. He was looking for true creativity all his life which meant never saddling for something routine and trivial and constantly metamorphosing into new forms and approaches to art.
Duchamp opened The Great Trouble with Art by stating the lack of true creativity and rebellious spirit among young artists. For him, art was the synonym of revolt produced by a genuinely imaginative person trying to get out of the framework of an already existing cultural environment. On the contrary, artists got used to choosing and sticking to some landmarks, repeatedly doing the same thing over and over in an attempt to achieve perfection. Duchamp denied perfection and progress as the goals of art because they symbolized the death of authentic creativity and individualism. There is no similar sphere of life to art in which a person would be so free in the manifestation of his identity and not constrained by the cultural and social frameworks.
Considering the enslavement of the artist by the environment and tradition, Duchamp turns to reflections on Dadaism as a practice of purification of consciousness. He admits having a sentimental attitude towards Dada, a movement that was “serviceable as a purgative” for him and others (Duchamp, 1946). It provided thinking beyond the physical and visual sides of art and introduced a philosophical, intellectual, and “literary” approach. The purpose of Dadaism was to reject the influence of the environment, stop thinking about already invented ideas, and create something genuinely original, coming from personal inner experience. That is why Duchamp admired such artists as Raymond Russell, whose poetry was something unseen, wholly independent, and exceptional.
Consequentially, shifting from visual and “physical” aspects of painting to pure originality and producing unique ideas was at the core of Duchamp’s approach to art. He claimed in his essay that art should become “an intellectual expression, rather than an animal expression” (Duchamp, 1946). He wanted his works to be thought-provoking, challenging the ideas of authorship and the importance of fine art technique; that is what his ready-made art is famous for. The great pleasure of art in Duchamp’s eyes should come from intellectual activity, and it should be candy for the mind rather than the eyes. As a result, Duchamp stroke the world with a discussion on the nature of art by showing that parts of art precepted as essential are not necessary to create art.
Duchamp was loyal to his ideas of constant search for originality during his life, never sinking into self-repetition. He drifted from painting in the already existing but avant-garde art movements (like Cubism and Dada) to creating utterly original art forms (like ready-made art). By connecting the unconnected (for example, language and optics), Duchamp created complex art, which in itself is a manifestation of his ideas formulated in The Great Trouble with Art. It is hard, if not impossible, to categorize his art because it was the point, the goal, and the nature of art for Duchamp in its elusiveness and shifting intangibility.
References
Duchamp, M. (1946). The great trouble with art: 1946.Obelisk Art History.