Modernism in Art Modern Philosophies

Modernism in Art

Modern Philosophies of Modern Art: a 'Readymade' debate or a mutual society of agreement? Greenburg v. Duchamp

Marcel Duchamp makes two sweeping assumptions regarding the production of art -- first, that art is 'readymade' in other words, that all art really only has a surface uniqueness, and that art is dependant upon derivative materials of production. This is nothing to be ashamed of, rather it is endemic to all art, and is the source of the strength of art in all media.

However, according to Clement Greenburg, the essence of modern art specifically lies in the ability of art to engage in a kind of 'self critique' through the actual process of making art. He uses, at the beginning of the section of his essay on modern art, the analogy of how Kant used logic to establish the limits of logic. He suggests that modernism used the same limitations, now ascribed to art, such as the flatness of composition, in a positive fashion. For instance, Greenburg paints, no pun intended, Manet as kind of a neo-Andy Warhol, as Manet "became the first Modernist" as he created "pictures by virtue of the frankness with which they declared the flat surfaces on which they were painted." (Greenburg, 195)

Greenberg's statement of modern art as a self-critique is echoed in some of the words of modern artists themselves. As noted by Marcel Duchamp's essay on his own composition, "I realized very soon the danger of repeating indiscriminately this form of expression and decided to limit the production of 'Readymades' to a small number yearly." "Readymades" is a work of modern art that involves replication of mechanistic methods of production. However, although "Readymades" is an act of self-parody in the sense that it takes the limits of readymade production to an absurd extreme, and deploys such elements in a consistent and uniform fashion, it is also, according to the artist, parodies art.

But the work does not specifically parody modern art, but art in general, for according to Duchamp, "the spectator even more for the artist, art is a habit forming drug." Art in the Western individualistic tradition is supposed to be unique, but what is key to the artistic understanding of "Readymades" are their lack of uniqueness and sense of standardized capitalistic form that is supposed to be the antithesis of true art. This is not simply unique to "Readymade," although this facet of art is brought to the forefront in this particular work. But Duchamp stresses that since "the tubes of paint used by an artist are manufactured and readymade products we must conclude that all the paintings in the world are Readymades aided' and also works of assemblage." (Duchamp, 83) How can art be so unique, asks Duchamp, within any particular context, when all individuals are using the same modalities of plastic production. Similarly, according to Greenburg's analysis of Manet, "it was the stressing of the ineluctable flatness of the surface that remained, however, more fundamental than anything else to the processes by which pictorial art criticized and defined itself under Modernism. For flatness alone was unique and exclusive to pictorial art." (Greenburg, 195)