Dalia Judovitz
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816665297
- eISBN:
- 9781452946535
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816665297.001.0001
- Subject:
- Art, Art History
Marcel Duchamp’s 1919 readymade, L.H.O.O.Q., which he created by drawing a moustache and goatee on a commercial reproduction of the Mona Lisa, precipitated a radical reevaluation of the meaning of ...
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Marcel Duchamp’s 1919 readymade, L.H.O.O.Q., which he created by drawing a moustache and goatee on a commercial reproduction of the Mona Lisa, precipitated a radical reevaluation of the meaning of art, the process of art making, and the role of the artist. This book explores the central importance of appropriation, collaboration, influence, and play in Duchamp’s work—and in Dada and Surrealist art more broadly—to show how the concept of art itself became the critical fuel and springboard for questioning art’s fundamental premises. The book argues that rather than simply negating art, Duchamp’s readymades and later works, including films and conceptual pieces, demonstrate the impossibility of defining art in the first place. Through his readymades, for instance, Duchamp explicitly critiqued the commodification of art and inaugurated a profound shift from valuing art for its visual appearance to understanding the significance of its mode of public presentation. And if Duchamp literally drew on art, he also did so figuratively, thus raising questions of creativity and artistic influence. Equally destabilizing, the book writes, was Duchamp’s idea that viewers actively participate in the creation of the art they are viewing. In addition to close readings ranging across Duchamp’s oeuvre, even his neglected works on chess, the book provides interpretations of works by other figures who affected Duchamp’s thinking and collaborated with him, notably Francis Picabia, Man Ray, and Salvador Dalí, as well as artists who later appropriated and redeployed these gestures, such as Enrico Baj, Gordon Matta-Clark, and Richard Wilson. As the book makes clear, these associations become paradigmatic of a new, collective way of thinking about artistic production that decisively overturns the myth of artistic genius.Less
Marcel Duchamp’s 1919 readymade, L.H.O.O.Q., which he created by drawing a moustache and goatee on a commercial reproduction of the Mona Lisa, precipitated a radical reevaluation of the meaning of art, the process of art making, and the role of the artist. This book explores the central importance of appropriation, collaboration, influence, and play in Duchamp’s work—and in Dada and Surrealist art more broadly—to show how the concept of art itself became the critical fuel and springboard for questioning art’s fundamental premises. The book argues that rather than simply negating art, Duchamp’s readymades and later works, including films and conceptual pieces, demonstrate the impossibility of defining art in the first place. Through his readymades, for instance, Duchamp explicitly critiqued the commodification of art and inaugurated a profound shift from valuing art for its visual appearance to understanding the significance of its mode of public presentation. And if Duchamp literally drew on art, he also did so figuratively, thus raising questions of creativity and artistic influence. Equally destabilizing, the book writes, was Duchamp’s idea that viewers actively participate in the creation of the art they are viewing. In addition to close readings ranging across Duchamp’s oeuvre, even his neglected works on chess, the book provides interpretations of works by other figures who affected Duchamp’s thinking and collaborated with him, notably Francis Picabia, Man Ray, and Salvador Dalí, as well as artists who later appropriated and redeployed these gestures, such as Enrico Baj, Gordon Matta-Clark, and Richard Wilson. As the book makes clear, these associations become paradigmatic of a new, collective way of thinking about artistic production that decisively overturns the myth of artistic genius.
Patrick Frank
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780813062228
- eISBN:
- 9780813051710
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813062228.003.0005
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Latin American Studies
In chapter 4, Frank traces the changing styles of Noé and Macció. These two won travel awards from the Di Tella Foundation that took them to New York and Paris. Perhaps because of their absence from ...
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In chapter 4, Frank traces the changing styles of Noé and Macció. These two won travel awards from the Di Tella Foundation that took them to New York and Paris. Perhaps because of their absence from the disorder of Buenos Aires, the paintings of both artists evolved toward consideration of formal issues, such as the potential of flat color planes and the integrity of the surface of the work. Jorge de la Vega created the important Anamorphic Conflict series, influenced by Italian artist Enrico Baj and a response to conflicts between Argentine military factions. Frank rebuts critic Clement Greenberg’s comments about the provincialism of the Argentinian art world in 1964. (Greenberg had made a trip to Buenos Aires to judge an art competition.) Frank also discusses solo shows by Noé, de la Vega, Macció, and Deira and their participation in important exhibitions in the United States at the Guggenheim Museum and the Walker Art Center.Less
In chapter 4, Frank traces the changing styles of Noé and Macció. These two won travel awards from the Di Tella Foundation that took them to New York and Paris. Perhaps because of their absence from the disorder of Buenos Aires, the paintings of both artists evolved toward consideration of formal issues, such as the potential of flat color planes and the integrity of the surface of the work. Jorge de la Vega created the important Anamorphic Conflict series, influenced by Italian artist Enrico Baj and a response to conflicts between Argentine military factions. Frank rebuts critic Clement Greenberg’s comments about the provincialism of the Argentinian art world in 1964. (Greenberg had made a trip to Buenos Aires to judge an art competition.) Frank also discusses solo shows by Noé, de la Vega, Macció, and Deira and their participation in important exhibitions in the United States at the Guggenheim Museum and the Walker Art Center.
