Marcel Duchamps Many Art Critics

Marcel Duchamps

Many art critics and commentators do not consider Marcel Duchamp's later works to be art at all, especially his Green Box. A common critique of his work is that it is nonsensical and does not fit into any accepted idea of art or aesthetic beauty. A number of critics and commentators state that his later works are simply not understandable as art. These criticisms are however part of the reason why his work has become so acclaimed in the art world. Furthermore, these criticisms point towards the most important aspect of his art. This refers to the fact that it is intended to be enigmatic and mysterious and to challenge the boundaries of what is conventionally understood as art.

One also has to understand that Duchamp's work is intended to place into question the meaning of artistic creation and to interrogate the very question of what art is. Therefore, the central thesis that will be explored in this paper is that the works that Duchamp created, especially The Green Box and The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even (The Large Glass) are intended as an interrogation of the essence of art and a refusal to remain within conventional parameters.

As one commentator succinctly notes; "Marcel Duchamp perhaps more than any other artist in history challenged the definition of art." ( Merrit) One of the aspects of his life that reflects on his unusual and discursive approach to art is that he was interested in many fields and disciplines throughout his life. This refers to his interest in science, mathematics and optics as they relate to the concept of art. He was especially interested in "…non-Euclidean geometry and the mathematics of higher dimensionality." ( Merrit) This was to be factor in his search for alternatives to conventional methods and views about artistic creation.

Marcel Duchamp was born in 1887 in Blainvillein in France. He was the son of a notary and the entire family was deeply interested art, music literature and chess. He was not the only artist in his family and both his brothers and sister became well-known artists. Duchamp went on to study at an art academy in Paris. However he was never particularly attracted to the conventional art world and "…preferred playing billiards to attending classes." (Stafford) Nevertheless, he did absorb many influences from the more provocative and unconventional source such as Symbolism, Fauvism and Cubism.

His art as well as his writing had one dominant theme. This was that art could not be trapped or contained in any category or in any theoretical or visual way. In a real and historical sense his work is the forerunner of the radial questioning in art of all orthodoxy and assumptions about reality. Central to his work is paradox and ambiguity, as well as mystery. In Works like The Green Box Duchamp emphasizes freedom of expression and the intellect. It is in many ways a "freeing" or a liberation of art forms and an extension of art beyond visual parameters and formats.

Before we discuss The Green Box and its associated work, we should also note that before the creation of this work the artist had experimented with ways of moving beyond the conventions of art. We see this is his readymades, such as the Bicycle wheel, created in 1913.

The ides of the readymade was linked to the concept of anti- art. Anti-art is a, …loosely used term that has been applied to works or attitudes that debunk traditional concepts of art. The term is said to have been coined by Marcel Duchamp in about 1914, and his ready-mades can be cited as early examples of the genre. Dada was the first anti-art movement, and subsequently the denunciation of art became commonplace -- almost de rigueur -- among the avant-garde

(Chilvers 22)

Duchamp also questions the boundaries of the visual arts. In fact, in The Green Box he poses the question whether the visual was not another limitation that art had to transcend. Furthermore, in 1916 he states that he was interested in "ideas" and not just in visual products. (Tomkins 9)

The Green Box, September 1934

The Green Box is basically a box containing collotype reproductions on various papers. It is more correctly known as The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even (The Green Box). The notes and papers in the box refer to a central work entitled The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even (The Large Glass) (1915 -- 23). In effect what the Green Box comprises is a collection of notes, thoughts and descriptions that serve as a form of artistic record of his creative and intellectual process while he was creating his major work The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even. It describes the main artwork in words and diagrams, thereby extending the artwork beyond the visual. The Green Box contains one color plate, ninety-three notes, and photographs and facsimiles by Duchamp and was produced in an edition of 320. (Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History) On the one hand it is an important and even essential part of the larger work. However, it is also as work in its own right.