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Marcel Duchamp ‘Fountain’
E. Kuenzli, Rudolf & M. Naumann, Francis “Marcel Duchamp: Artist of the Century” Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain: Its History and Aesthetics in the Context of 1917-William A. Camfield (1996): 64-90.
William A. Camfield writes about Marcel Duchamp’s ‘Fountain’ as one of the most famous and equally infamous objects in the history of modern art. He goes over the history of ‘Fountain’ in high detail and answers all the questions surrounding this work. He mentions how people denied that ‘Fountain’ is actually art, is relevant and if Duchamp even was even the artist behind this work. Camfield writes about how the initial response at its first exhibition was met with confusion and denial …show more content…
Green starts his analysis of it by wanting to focus on the architecture of the work rather than the confrontational elements of the work itself. He mentions how Picasso really slaved over this particular work and had lots of preparation before even attempting it, an example of this being the sixteen sketch books he had lots of drawings, sketches, water colors that all were in relation to ‘Les Demoiselles d'Avignon’. Green says that Picasso had a strong desire to be in control when it came to how he approached this work but found it difficult to do so and how 8 to 9 months he had finished ‘Les Demoiselles d'Avignon’. Danto also mentions how he Picasso was almost done but had to repaint the figures on either side and was prepared to redo what initially held it together. He also shows some of Picasso’s original sketches and discusses how they varied from the finished work, these changes were a male sailor being a visitor, was going to be a lot more graphic. Picasso also chose to later on introduce two figure types rather than the one, figure style number one being a style close to Egypt and the other related to an African style. Danto likes to take the reader through the process leading to the finished version of ‘Les Demoiselles d'Avignon’ and does this rather well. What he does well is …show more content…
Initially Emmerling starts interpreting Basquiat’s work ‘Profit I’ but then says “While the connection to Basquiat’s personal situation may guide us in interpreting ‘Profit I’, we would be wrong to reduce its statement solely to an autobiographical content”. Emmerling then mentions how the Basquiat way is to insert multiple meanings that can run parallel into one single work of his. He shows how the main figure in ‘Profit I’ appears in another one of his works ‘Untitled Angel’ and this shows the same praying figure. Emmerling then goes on to talk about the religious aspects of ‘Profit I’ and says how even though the religious aspect isn’t the main focus of Basquiat, that ‘Profit I’ is a statement on “Sacred Exceptionalism” and mentions how the crown of thorns formed with rays of light shows a sacrifice similar to Christ-like figure. Emmerling goes on to say how this could be a representation of Basquiat at the time of him being an artist along with the other African American artists and musicians and their struggle under white oppression. Emmerling mentions that Basquiat had similar themes of Sacred Exceptionalism and Heroism that was present in most of Basquiat’s works. A strength of Emmerling is how he takes the reader through the stylistic aspects of ‘Profit I’ and