"1st Order Readymades" (Part 2)

An object, usually singular, that is virtually an “off the shelf,” commodity item that is designated as art by the artist within the context of an institutionalized display; Duchamp’s Bottle Rack, Fountain and Trap (a coat-rack) are prime examples.(1) These unaltered or “pure objects” display the closest conceptual rigor and allegiance to Duchamp’s invention.

At first glance, Three standard lossages, an “osteological specimen” by Ana María Gómez López, suggests a moderate takeaway on the readymade’s power of contextualization. However, these “bones” are 3D printout replicas that have a “potential for commercial circulation, as their accompanying .obj files can be made rapidly available on fabrication websites.”(2) Gómez López riffs on Duchamp’s Three Standard Stoppages, a work of chance placement of string, to underline her idea that an individual’s bones rendered universal through commodification are re-contextualized (again) as an “art object.”

Such 1st Order readymades as Olga Alexander’s McCall’s block & lot #4620 (a jacket pattern), Larry Lairson’s Untitled (pole) and Angela Smalls’ Silver Raindrops, a pile of hex-head bolts, negate the essence of an object’s privileged usefulness via the artists’ choices and our institutional validation. Simultaneously, these objects both are and aren’t “art.”

Many of the 1st Order readymades rely on titles to maximize their frisson. Andrew Simmons unnerves us with his title proclaiming that a razorblade holds the Cure for Human Suffering, while Bill Conger promises that the wearer of his sunglasses will have the Deepest Darkest view. On a lighter note, it may be a stretch to connect Joseph Orzal’s Picasso, baby t-shirt to Reaganomics but we can easily envision Kristin Richards’ framing nail strips laid edge-to-edge on the floor as a Rug.

[NEXT WEEK: PART 3, “2ND ORDER READYMADES”]

IMAGE: Detail of Rug 001 by Kristin Richards; 31,876 framing nails; 8x12 feet; photograph by the artist; © Copyright 2014. 

UPDATE: Michael O'Sullivan's Art Review at WAPO.

  

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1. Duchamp wrote titles and/or signed some of these but most scholars do not view these inscriptions as alterations. In “The Unfindable Readymade,” art historian Hector Obalk says Duchamp gave us only 10 “pure objects” as readymades; http://www.toutfait.com/issues/issue_2/Articles/obalk.html

2. Quote from undated statement by Ana María Gómez López.

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IMAGE: Photo of Marcel Duchamp by Edward Steichen, 1917. Private collection, Paris; courtesy Arts & Sociétés (artsetsocietes.org)

Readymades Defined

Joan Bakewell interviews MD for BBC; video share courtesy Art History Lab.

The Orders

The Orders

1^st order readymade (commodity object without “assist”);

2^nd order “assisted” readymade;

3^rd order readymade (conceptually combined commodity objects);

4^th order readymade (object combined with “action”).

Objet trouvé 

Object of indeterminate function, origin and/or conscious recognition.

IMAGE: Chee Wang Ng; Still from “108 Global Rice Bowls”; 2^nd order “assisted” readymade.

"C'est arrive malgre moi” (Who's your Daddy?)

Undoubtedly, Marcel Duchamp can be easily positioned as the “Father of Conceptual Art” and all of its myriad trajectories and continuing artist offspring.

However, it is a little known fact that Duchamp did have one child - not with Alexina “Teeny” Sattler but with Jeanne Serre in 1911. 

Because Jeanne was a married woman, the birth of their illegitimate daughter, Yvonne "Yo" Sermayer, was kept secret. But Duchamp stayed involved in Yo’s life, even later organizing an exhibit of her artwork in New York City in 1967.(1)

IMAGE: Billy Al Bengston and Dennis Hopper tease Andy Warhol at the opening of Duchamp's 1963 retrospective at the Pasadena Art Museum; photograph by Julian Wasser.

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1. Cros, Caroline. Marcel Duchamp, London, 2006, 109 and 184; see also The Private Worlds of Marcel Duchamp

"The Old Fox"

Marcel Duchamp: a system of paradox in resonance.

The man inspires the highest regard (often the love) of those who know him; the public so often regards his work as anathema. He ranks with the greatest artists of the century without any conscious concern for either greatness or specifically being an artist. None of his peers has produced or exhibited as little as he to achieve such stature. He is "a merchant of wit" who's major works are as complex as any produced in the time. It has been said: Duchamp shows it hard, but in the easiest way. 

The paradox of this characterization resolves in a word (and a pun): an-artist. Being neither "anti" nor "pro" art, he has directly and indirectly further the development of many colleagues and modern art in general, participating in movements without the need to join, warning that art can be "a habit-forming drug," and cautioning that removed from the glare and noise of today's vast art world, vital activities will go on "underground." The gentleman is truly an-artist.

As to Duchamp's achievement ("greatness"), let it be enough to say that in spite of all (and intentions, even) the depth and meaning in his work continues to unfold and seems increasingly pertinent. In his pioneering, particularly that of object art with its marriage of "things" and "linguistic concepts," he has registered an incredible number of "patents." 

Walter Hopps

[Single page document found in Norton Simon Museum archives on MD's 1963 retrospective, by or of Marcel Duchamp or Rrose Selavy; n.d.

Photograph by Julian Wasser; © Copyright by Julian Wasser.

KATZEN ART CENTER "CALL FOR ENTRIES" FOR "READYMADE@100"

This Fall, the American University Museum at Katzen Arts Center will present “Readymade@100,” an exhibit celebrating the 100th anniversary of Marcel Duchamp’sreadymade concept. The exhibition is curated by Maryland artist, art theorist, and Corcoran College of Art and Design professor Mark Cameron Boyd and includes an “open call,” juried exhibit opportunity seeking submissions of “new” readymades from artists that significantly expand upon Duchamp’s idea. As the originary conceptual act, Duchamp’s choice of commercially available objects for art exhibition, such as “Bottle Rack” and his infamous “Fountain”urinal, secured his reputation in art history. It was Duchamp’s location of these objects within the “art context” that began a century of debate about the definitions of art and established Duchamp’s influence on contemporary art practices.“Readymade@100” will both celebrate Duchamp’s vision and recognize the relevance of the readymade by exhibiting new work by emergent artists that continue a contemporary development of the concept.

The American University Museum will publish a catalog of the exhibition with reproductions of selected artworks and a curatorial essay, and public talks and a lecture are planned during the exhibition.

CALL FOR ENTRIES

Submissions of artwork must be in high-resolution (300dpi) digital format and must be received by June 15, 2014. Artists interested in submitting work who require further information may contact museum@american.edu