Marcel Duchamp Influence On Art

Art is defined in the dictionary as “the conscious use of skill and creative imagination, especially in the production of aesthetic objects” (Merriam-Webster Dictionary, 2015). But with time and through changes in society also come changes in the way that art is perceived. Fountain, which was a urinal upon which Marcel Duchamp wrote the initials “R.Mutt”, and the category of art he coined “ready-mades” were some of the most innovative pieces of art for a few reasons. First of all, they gave people a reason to stop conforming to the standards of traditional art. Secondly, they “changed the emphasis of art from form to concept” (Goldsmith, 1983). Lastly, they influenced many other artists to be more open minded. Near the beginning …show more content…
This transformation allowed for new forms of art to emerge. There is a whole line of post-modern artists who were influenced by Marcel Duchamp. Artists like Ai Wei Wei, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, and especially Andy Warhol (Relf, 2016), all had very similar outlooks on art to Duchamp. You get a sense of Duchamp’s influence on the artists just by looking at their works. For example, Andy Warhol’s representation of a bowl of Campbell’s Soup, which is often compared to the urinal in the sense that it is a mundane object. “You cannot look at a can of Campbell’s Soup in any grocery store and not think of Warhol…Any man standing in front of a urinal will think of Duchamp” (Carnegie Museums, 2016). Their works have been displayed in art exhibitions together, for example Twisted Pair at the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh (Carnegie Museums, 2016). Another big factor of his influence on Warhol was the idea to mass produce art (Groys, 2010). The picture of Marilyn Monroe by Andy Warhol for example, which is a 25 square collage of the exact same picture, gives the impression that he is producing art through a factory because he is producing identical images. Ironically, his art studio in New York was called “The Factory” (Gilmore,