From:
don dougan <dondougan@zzzzzzzz>
Date:
Thu, 2 Feb 2006 10:17:04 -0500
Subject:
Ron Mueck (Duchamp's Urinal)
Hi Norman,
Quoted text begins.RE: "Duchamp's urinal got broken . . . he would have approved of this,
or at least, not minded. Why is that? . . . Art is . . . so damn
anthropocentric."
End of quote.
You answered your own question.
If you read about the concept behind the Dada movement (of which Duchamp
was a major proponent, and from which the 'Fountain' was first presented
as "Art") you will understand that very core of Dada was that it
"flouted conventional aesthetic and cultural values by producing works
marked by nonsense, travesty, and incongruity." (definition quoted from
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition)
As such, the self-proclaimed 'artist' who broke the 'Fountain' (the man
who broke it had previously publicly urinated on the piece several years
ago while it was in another exhibit) could be said to have fulfilled one
of the basic implied tenents of Dada.
As to his approval or not minding -- the story goes that when his "large
glass" piece was shipped to the Museum in which it was to be shown it was
cracked and broken. After being informed of this, he said something to
the effect of, "Now it is completed." The large glass remains on exhibit
in it's broken state.
Though Duchamp was a 'maker' he was also a gameplayer -- and it was the
give and take of the game that interested him conceptually. In his work
he gave us art objects as object lessons about the nature of what we as a
culture call "Art" and in so doing Duchamp changed our cultural
understanding and the definition of what is (modern) Art probably more
than any other single artist of the Twentieth century.
For what it is worth and to give it a greater context (since this is a
stone list), though he used stone as a material in his work only
marginally (for example the cage of marble cubes for his alter ego Rose
Selavy), Duchamp was a major proponent and admirer of his friend's --
Constantin Brancusi -- work, being in fact a behind-the-scenes
facilitator for many sales of Brancusi's sculpture.
It all goes around and comes back here. Anthropocentric, ain't it?
Good Carving to you,
Don
http://www.dondougan.homestead.com/indexdd.html
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