Marcel Duchamp

At some given point in history politics, religion and art inter-collide and create new vision for society to engage in. Artist Gianlorenzo Bernini created St. Teresa of Avila in Ecstasy during the Baroque ca. 1600-1700 CE. The sculpture, made with white marble, has gilded bronze rays with illuminating light that descends and brightens the figure from a hidden window above. It depicts a playful with smirky smile angel whom opens Teresa’s robe and aims with an arrow at her breast. It represents…

before they moved on to the next piece. Being that kinetic art incorporated movement and required a bit of a longer time to digest mentally, it quickly became a minor frenzy for artists who wanted to delve into something new and challenging. For Duchamp, art was more than met…

The author argues that Marcel Duchamp’s work was not concerned about the object of which was the focus of his work, or the ascetics of that object. The purpose behind his work was to provoke thought and discussion about art and what art is or is not. The discussion should not revolve around the particular aesthetics, or that an object or subject has a particular meaning as he did not paint or create works for this purpose. In Marcel Duchamp’s “A Sad Young Man on a Train”, the…

The documentary “Exit Through the Gift Shop” depicts the transformation of a family man obsessed with filming every waking moment, Thierry Guetta, into a self-absorbed and self-proclaimed artist, Mr. Brainwash. In capturing this man’s journey, the documentary brings to light two significant issues in the world of art. The first being the use of assistants to create artwork and the second being the instantaneous success of an artist; whom without the endorsements of already renowned and respected…

Since Ai Weiwei’s birth in 1957, his complete life story has sculpted him into the profound artist and social activist that he is today. After his father, a well known poet, was exiled during the anti-rightist campaign, Ai spent his first years in a labor camp. The circumstances of his childhood instilled a voice inside of Ai that would later invigorate his art. Ai explains the conditions of his children as having “no personal rights, no freedom of speech or expression” (Weiwei, 2008). Ai came…

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau, or the French term for “New Art,” is a colorful movement in the arts that attracted Europe during the process of change from the 19th century to the 20th century. Art Nouveau had other names, “Stile Liberty” in Italy and “youth style” in German. Right before art lovers would begin riding in motor cars, watching moving pictures, and refreshing for the First World War, they would flip through bright international philosophy and style of art magazines. This cultural…

What is art? There are many different theories that attempt to define art in various ways, as well as theories that negate the possibility of a definition at all. Some people believe that art needs to evoke thoughts or feelings- that it is defined as art by its effects on the viewers. Others believe that art is defined by how its creator made it and what it was made to represent. In his work, “Art, Philosophy, and the Philosophy of Art,” Danto looks at the question, “What distinguishes art…

ainting Nude Descending a Staircase (No. 2) by Marcel Duchamp is more thought-provoking and artistically relevant than Dorothea Tanning’s painting Birthday. These pieces were painted in different time periods, when different styles of art were common, but when the viewer considers the aesthetic qualities of the piece, the historical value and the ease of which one can draw an interpretation of the piece Duchamp’s is more thought-provoking. Though both pictures have compelling titles that…

The artist constructs a model from cardboard, referring to a real or imaginary image, then he make a photograph of the model, which is to be destroyed afterwards. Thomas Demand, born in 1964 in Munich, is among the most outstanding artists of our times, primarily a sculptor-slash-photographer, active also as a curator. Demand began his art education at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich (1987-90), but it was at the Academy of Art in Düsseldorf (1990-2) and Goldsmith's College in London (1993-4),…

museums play on our perception of art. This then leads into the final topic in art theory, which is ‘art as ideas’ or concept art. I look at one of the most influential theorists of the topic, Arthur C Danto, as well as artists like Sol LeWitt and Marcel Duchamp to determine whether an idea can really be art and some of the theories opponents who believe most conceptual art requires no skill, and therefore cannot be called art. In my conclusion I revisit the information in both chapters and…