I want to clarify our understanding of the word 'art' – to … - Marcel Duchamp

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I want to clarify our understanding of the word 'art' – to be sure, without an attempt to a definition. What I have in mind is that art may be bad, good or indifferent, but, whatever adjective is used, we must call it art, and bad art is still art in the same way as a bad emotion is still an emotion.
Therefore, when I refer to 'art coefficient', it will be understood that I refer not only to great art, but I am trying to describe the subjective mechanism which produces art in a raw state – 'à l'état brute' – bad, good or indifferent.

Marcel Duchamp

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About Marcel Duchamp

Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (July 28, 1887 – October 2, 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, and conceptual art. Duchamp is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse, as one of the three artists who helped to define the revolutionary developments in the plastic arts in the opening decades of the 20th century, responsible for significant developments in painting and sculpture. He was the first artist creating 'ready-made' in modern art.

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Also Known As

Alternative Names: Henri Robert Marcel Duchamp • Rrose Sélavy • R. Mutt • Rose Sélavy • Marcel Duchamp-Villon • Marsel Dushan • Duxiang • Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp • Marcel Duchamp- Villon • Rrose Selavy • Rose Selavy

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Shorter versions of this quote

What I have in mind is that art may be bad, good or indifferent, but, whatever adjective is used, we must call it art, and bad art is still art in the same way that a bad emotion is still an emotion.

What I have in mind is that art may be bad, good, or indifferent, but, whatever adjective is used, we must call it art, and bad art is art in the same way that a bad emotion is still an emotion.

Originators like Marcel Duchamp:

Pablo Picasso Edgar Degas Gerhard Richter Jean Dubuffet Willem de Kooning

Additional quotes by Marcel Duchamp

If a straight horizontal thread one meter long falls from a height of one meter on to a horizontal plane twisting as it pleases [it] creates a new image of the unit of length.

..paint was always [in history of painting] a means to an end, whether the end was religious, social, decorative or romantic. Now it's become an end in itself..

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.

I want to clarify our understanding of the word 'art' – to be sure, without an attempt to a definition. What I have in mind is that art may be bad, g… - Marcel Duchamp

About Marcel Duchamp

Also Known As

Shorter versions of this quote

Additional quotes by Marcel Duchamp