New Media Representations Marcel Duchamp 1 Enduring Understanding

New Media Representations: Marcel Duchamp 1

Enduring Understanding Students will understand that… the use of ready-mades and other media have created new approaches to art and expanded its definition. 2

Essential Questions Overarching - How did technological advances affect art? - What are the issues and concerns surrounding new media and its representational mechanisms? Topical - Are readymades art? - What is the role of an artist when using readymades? 3

5 W 1 H When 1887 – 1968 How Painting Sculpture Ready-mades Where France America Marcel Duchamp Why To make non-retinal art To ignore aesthetic tastes & sensibilities Which Cubism Dadaism What Avant-garde Anti-art via satire 4

When 1880 s 1878 1888 1908 1914 -18 1915 -24 Étienne-Jules Marey and chronophotography. Muybridge’s The Horse in Motion Roundhay Garden Scene (world’s 1 st motion picture). Cubism. World War I. Dadaism. 5

Where France • Dada and Surrealist movements originated from France. America • Duchamp became a United States citizen in 1955. 6

Which Cubism • • An art movement in the 20 th century. Pioneered by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. The depiction of several perspectives in a single plane. Cubist works like Picasso, focuses on reduction and contortion of space in the painting and the dislocation of faces. The figures are posed in a tight, central composition. 7

Which Dadaism • Began during World War I. • Outrage against cruelty of the war and its rationality. • A rejection against bourgeois capitalist. • Dadaists embraced chaos and irrationality. • Dada was the opposite of everything that art stood for. 8

What • Mechanics of movement. • Avant-garde • Art that pushes the boundaries of what is accepted as the “norm”. • Anti-Art • Works that are delivered or exhibited in a conventional context but pokes fun of serious art. • Uses satirical or humorous content. 9

2 chess players in multiple views. Players are shown in different views, showing the passage of time. Depicting the intangible. Portrait of Chess Players, 1911 Oil on canvas, 108 x 101 cm Private Collection 10

What • Duchamp attempted to depict motion by superimposing successive images. • It has the elements of both Cubist and Futurist styles. • Possibly influenced by photography, Muybridge’s Woman Walking Downstairs, late 19 th Century. 11

Futurism • An art movement in the early 20 th century. • It is originated from Italy. • Its founder was Filippo Tommaso Marinetti. • The Futurist rejected the past and celebrated speed, technology, youth and violence, the car, machinery and industry. • Those things that represent technological triumph of humanity over nature. • They were also passionate nationalists, who believed in war as a necessity for the human spirit. 12

Futurist art Swifts: Paths of Movement + Dynamic Sequences by Giacomo Balla (Italian, 1871 -1958) Unique Forms of Continuity in Space by Umberto Boccioni (Italian, 18821916) 13

Influence of Eadweard Muybridge Woman walking downstairs, late 19 th C Photography 14

Looking at the ‘nude’ 15

• Renaissance artists attempted to portray reality, showing the human body as it really was, rather than the stiffness and artificiality that had constituted medieval art. • Female figures were often plump, (considered beautiful at that time) and males muscular. 16

Classical themes, such as the lives and loves of the pagan gods and goddesses, became more and more popular. 17

• Classical sculptures, typically of the Greek and Roman gods, were often nude and portrayed figures with athletic bodies. • This same theme-physically fit nudes--is often portrayed in Renaissance painting and sculpture. • Even religious figures are given the bodies of Greek Gods. A typical example is Michelangelo's statue of David, which is completely nude; yet presents as a very fit, athletic, muscular young man. Renaissance sculpture of the myth god Neptune, from Florence and Rome 18

Study for Nude Descending a Staircase. Cubism, together with his knowledge of the chronophotography of Etienne. Jules Marey and the photographic sequences of Eadweard Muybridge, directly affected Duchamp’s conception of this subject matter. Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 1, 1911 Oil on cardboard on panel, 95. 9 x 60. 3 cm 19

This Artwork was the turning point in Duchamp’s artistic career. Why? Duchamp submitted Nude Descending a Staircase No. 2 to the Salon des Independants in Paris, but the hanging committee, dominated by Cubists, including his brothers and a number of friends, objected to it and particularly to its title, inscribed directly on the canvas, which they thought too provocative and not in keeping with the more traditional subjects they determined appropriate for serious Cubist painting. Duchamp withdrew his submission, an event that became the turning-point in his artistic career. Why was this painting controversial? Nude Descending a Staircase (No. 2), 1912 by Marcel Duchamp. Oil on canvas. 20

DUCHAMP’S READYMADES 21

What are ‘readymades’? "an ordinary object elevated to the dignity of a work of art by the mere choice of an artist. " – from the Dictionary of Surrealism 22

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Fountain, 1917 Porcelain urinal, 23. 5 x 18 x 60 cm Private Collection 24

What • He bought the Bedfordshire model urinal from J. L. Mott Ironworks. • He signed it with a pseudonym R. Mutt. • It was submitted as an act of provocation to the Society of Independent Artists. • It was taken out of the 1917 exhibition. • Duchamp resigned immediately from the board of members after that. • A controversy ensued, questioning the work as art. • Beatrice Wood (an American artist) defended- “Duchamp described his purpose with the piece as shifting the focus of art from physical craft to intellectual interpretation”. • This intellectual interpretation soon became known as conceptual 25 art.

Look around the art room and source for things that you consider to be a work of art. You have 10 mins for this part. In 60 sec present to your class to justify why you consider that your choice is a work of art. 26

Evaluate the artwork presented using the following aesthetic theories a guide. Imitationalism: Some critics favor the realistic presentation of the artwork. They feel that an artwork should imitate life; that it should appear real before it can be considered successful. Formalism: Other critics think that composition is the most important factor in a work of art. This theory stresses the importance of the arrangements of the EOAD. Emotionalism: Critics who support this theory are primarily concerned with the emotional content of the artwork. They require a strong sense of feelings, moods, or ideas to be communicated from the artwork to the viewer. Instrumental: Critics supporting this theory think that art should lead to some religious, moral or political purpose. Are there other criteria to consider? Craftsmanship, originality, historical importance, comparison to similar work. Can we use aesthetic theories to judge 27 new media works?

Bottle Rack/Egouttoir, 1914 Galvanized iron, 59 x 37 cm Original lost, replica Private Collection 28

In Advance of the Broken Arm, 1915 Snow shovel, wood and galvanized iron, 121. 3 cm Yale Center for British Art, USA 29

Bicycle Wheel, 1915 Ready-mades, Height 124 cm 30

The Bride Stripped Bare by her Bachelors, Even (The Large Glass) 1915 -23 Oil paint, varnish, lead foil, lead wire, and dust on two glass plates (cracked), each mounted between 2 glass panels in a steel and wood frame, 272. 5 x 175. 8 cm Philadelphia Museum of Art 31

Mona Lisa, 1503 – 1506 by Leonardo da Vinci Oil on wood, 77 x 53 cm Louvre, Paris L. H. O. O. Q. 1919 Oil on canvas, 20 x 12 cm 32

What • It is a cheap postcard reproduction of da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. • Duchamp drew a moustache and a beard over it in pencil. • It is called L. H. O. O. Q as a pun. • When the title is pronounced in French, it sounds like “Elle a chaud al cul”, which is “She has heat in the arse” when translated. 33

Why Background q Symbolist painter Odilon Redon (see slides 26 & 27). q He enjoyed using visual or verbal puns for cartoons. q Fascination with transition, change, movement and distance. q The concept of the 4 th dimension. q Chronophotography and cinematography (see slides 28 & 29). Étienne-Jules Marey, a French scientist and chronophotographer (a precursor to cinematography). q Max Stirner and The Ego and Its Own (see slide 30). Philosophy p Attempt to mystify art. p Show objects devoid of aesthetic interest but classified contextually as art by putting it in a gallery. q He could just pick one from the many interesting objects in the world, and this act of choice is equivalent to creation. 34

DUCHAMP’S INFLUENCES 35

Odilon Redon (1840 -1916) • A symbolist painter and printmaker. • He was born in Bordeaux Aquitaine France. • His works are ambiguous and undefinable. • They are not “outwardly anti-academic but quietly individual”. • Duchamp cited him as an early influence. 36

Some of Redon’s works… Spirit of the Forest, 1880 by Odilon Redon Cactus Man, 1881 by Odilon Redon The Crying Spider, 1881 by Odilon Redon 37

Chronophotography Flying Pelican, c. 1882 Étienne-Jules Marey 38

Chronophotography is a Victorian application of science (the study of movement), and art (photography). It is the technique precursor to cinematography. The word is from the Greek chronos and photography, "pictures of time. " Chronophotography is divided into two separate processes: Motography (continuous exposure of the subject) and Strobophotography (intermittent exposure of the subject). Notable chronophotographers include Eadweard Muybridge, Etienne-Jules Marey, Ottomar Anschütz. 39

Muybridge’s Horse In Motion 40

Max Stirner (1806 -1856) • A German philosopher. • His main work- The Ego and Its Own, 1844. • It portrays the life of a human individual dominated by authoritarian concepts. • These concepts are primarily religion and ideology and the institutions that claim authority over the individual. • Stirner wrote in the book that these concepts must be “shaken and undermined” in order to able to act freely. 41

How Painting • Juxtaposition of different static views of subject matter over time, like the descending nude series. Ready-mades • Using custom or manufactured ready-mades. • Kinetic - some of his ready-mades are able to move. 42

References http: //www. dada-companion. com/duchamp/readymades_catalogue. php http: //www. understandingduchamp. com/ 43