Marcel Duchamp Quotes

A collection of quotes by Marcel Duchamp.

Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968) was a French-American artist whose provocative works challenged traditional notions of art. He is known for his influential role in the Dada and Surrealist movements. Duchamp's most controversial piece, "Fountain" (1917), a urinal presented as art, revolutionized the concept of a ready-made object. His groundbreaking ideas and concepts greatly influenced future generations of artists, leading some to regard him as the father of conceptual art. Duchamp's legacy continues to inspire contemporary art practice and his contributions endure as seminal explorations of art's boundaries.

All this twaddle, the existence of God, atheism, determinism

All this twaddle, the existence of God, atheism, determinism, liberation, societies, death, etc., are pieces of a chess game called language, and they are amusing only if one does not preoccupy oneself with 'winning or losing this game of chess.

Life God Religion Language Society Atheism Chess

I like living, breathing better than working...my art is tha

I like living, breathing better than working...my art is that of living. Each second, each breath is a work which is inscribed nowhere, which is neither visual nor cerebral, it's a sort of constant euphoria.

Life Art Happiness

I don't believe in art. I believe in artists.

I don't believe in art. I believe in artists.

Art

All in all, the creative act is not performed by the artist

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. This becomes even more obvious when posterity gives its final verdict and sometimes rehabilitates forgotten artists.

Creativity

The chess pieces are the block alphabet which shapes thought

The chess pieces are the block alphabet which shapes thoughts; and these thoughts, although making a visual design on the chess-board, express their beauty abstractly, like a poem... I have come to the personal conclusion that while all artists are not chess players, all chess players are artists.

Chess

I have forced myself to contradict myself in order to avoid

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

Contradiction

The individual, man as a man, man as a brain, if you like, i

The individual, man as a man, man as a brain, if you like, interests me more than what he makes, because I've noticed that most artists only repeat themselves.

Individuality

I am still a victim of chess. It has all the beauty of art -

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.

Beauty