Vicki in Visual Concepts: Duchamp

Marcel Duchamp's work The Large Glass is um...interesting. I almost don't even know what to think when I look at it. It's kind of confusing, and a little dull. I think viewing the piece in person would make it much better, but seeing an image of it makes it very hard to appreciate. There are so many things in each pane, it's hard to know what is there and what is going on. I don't feel at all inspired by this piece. The dull colors make it feel kind of boring. Duchamp does make good use of lines, creating a feeling of space in the background and to create elements in the work.

One of the things Marcel Duchamp is most famous for is his collection of "readymades," where he found objects and presented them as art. Duchamp began this project in 1915 with a bicycle wheel assembled on a stool. Duchamp began creating readymades to stray away from 'retinal' art; art that Duchamp believed was only visual. He selected the pieces on the basis of visual indifference, and the selections reflected his sense of irony, humor, and ambiguity. Duchamp limited the yearly production of readymades, and produced no more than 20 in his liftetime. He submitted many to art juries, challenging the public and his patrons to question what conventional art is, and is not. Many of his early readymades have been lost or discarded, but Duchamp commissioned reproductions of originals years later.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Readymades_of_Marcel_Duchamp