Marcel Duchamp Quotes on Art

Marcel Duchamp was a famous French conceptual artist. He is best known for his readymade artworks like the urinal that he signed R. Mutt. and for abandoning art to play chess. Famous Marcel Duchamp artworks include “Fountain”, “L.H.O.O.Q.”, “The Large Glass”, “Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2”, “Nude (Study), Sad Young Man on a Train”, “Coffee Mill”, “Bottle Rack”, “Bicycle Wheel” and “Étant donnés”.

Mini biography: Born Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp on the 28th of July, 1887 in Blainville-Crevon, France. His mother was Lucie Nicolle and his father Eugène Duchamp. Duchamp married Lydie Sarazin-Lavassor in 1927 and they divorced six months later. He married his second wife Alexina Sattler in 1954. The artist died on the 2nd of October, 1968 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France at the age of 81. Duchamp is buried at the Rouen Monumental Cemetery, in the Norman city of Rouen, France.

List of Famous Marcel Duchamp Art Quotes

Millions of artist create; only a few thousands are discussed or accepted by the spectator and many less again are consecrated by posterity. Marcel Duchamp

I have forced myself to contradict myself in order to avoid conforming to my own taste. Marcel Duchamp

This Neo-Dada, which they call New Realism, Pop Art, Assemblage etc. is an easy way out and lives on what Dada did. When I discovered ready-mades I thought to discourage aesthetics. In Neo-Dada they have taken my ready-made’s and found aesthetic beauty in them. I threw the bottle-rack and the urinal in their faces as a challenge and now they admire them for their aesthetic beauty. Marcel Duchamp

In the last analysis, the artist may shout from all the rooftops that he is a genius; he will have to wait for the verdict of the spectator in order that his declarations take a social value and that, finally posterity include him in the primers of Art history. Marcel Duchamp

I don’t believe in art. I believe in artists. Marcel Duchamp

Art is an outlet toward regions which are not ruled by time and space. Marcel Duchamp

No obstinacy, ad absurdum, of hiding the coition through a glass pane with one or many objects of the shop window. The penalty consists in cutting the pane and in feeling regret as soon as possession is consummated. Marcel Duchamp

I am still a victim of chess. It has all the beauty of art – and much more. It cannot be commercialized. Chess is much purer than art in its social position. Marcel Duchamp

People talk of Pablo Picasso as the leader of the Cubists but, strictly speaking, he is no longer a Cubist. Today he is a Cubist, tomorrow he will be something else. The only true Cubists are Gleizes and Metzinger. Marcel Duchamp

The Dada movement was an anti-movement which corresponded to a need born of the first World War. Although neither literary nor pictorial in essence, Dada found its exponents in painters and writers scattered all over the world. Marcel Duchamp

Painting is over and done with. Who could do anything better than this propeller? Look, could you do that? Marcel Duchamp

All in all, the creative act is not performed by the artist alone.. the spectator brings the work in contact with the external world by deciphering and interpreting its inner qualifications and thus adds his contribution to the creative act. Marcel Duchamp

I have been wanting to write to you for some time, but never have time, so absorbed I am in playing chess. I play night and day and nothing in the whole world interests me more than finding the right move. Marcel Duchamp

Art Quotes About Marcel Duchamp

Marcel Duchamp’s ‘Nude descending the stairs’ is the result of the desire for motion. Here he has also eliminated representative form. This avoids the connotation of ideas which would interfere with the success of the main issue – the sense of movement. Alexander Calder Quotes

Marcel Duchamp Self Portrait Print

More on Famous French Artist Marcel Duchamp

How has Marcel Duchamp influenced your art making? Is he one of your favorite famous French Dada artists? Let us know what you think about Marcel Duchamp in the comments below.

Related or similar popular artists and celebrities include: Damien Hirst, Martin Kippenberger, Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, and other Famous French Artists.