Duchamp's Legacy
“The artistic exchange of ideas and influences can profoundly affect the artworld.” Bicycle Wheel
Marcel Duchamp 1913 L.H.O.O.Q
Marcel Duchamp 1919 Bed
Robert Rauschenberg 1955 First Landing Jump
Robert Rauschenberg 1961 Mona Lisa
Andy Warhol 1979 Brillo Box (soap pads)
Andy Warhol 1964 |
The interchange of ideas and influences can greatly affect artists, their artworks and their audiences. Artists have developed a shared artistic language that allows them to build upon past concepts to produce works that have a profound effect upon the artworld. One such artist, who was a prime influence on those following him, was the iconoclast, Marcel Duchamp. His artworks were highly important in shaping the contemporary artworld, as he valued the idea behind the work rather than its retinal value. By breaking these artistic conventions, Duchamp paved the way for later artists including Robert Rauschenberg and Andy Warhol, who were revolutionary in their own right, having explored new artistic avenues and ideas. The artworks “Bed” (1955) and “First Landing Jump” (1961) by Rauschenberg, have built on Duchamp’s use of readymade materials expressed in his work “Bicycle Wheel” (1913), by combining painting and sculpture. Duchamp’s work “L.H.O.O.Q” (1919) eventually led to Warhol’s creation of “Mona Lisa” (1979) and “Brillo Box (soap pads)” (1964) which also appropriated and recontextualised iconic images from culture. These artists and their works furthered the idea of rejecting artistic tradition, leaving a lasting mark on the face of the modern artworld.
Marcel Duchamp’s artmaking practice was the first of its kind, therefore having a substantial impact upon the perception and definition of art. The artist was involved with the avant-garde movements during the modernist period, having experimented with cubist paintings and acted as one of the founders of the Dadaist movement. As an iconoclast, Duchamp soon abandoned even these artistic principles, with the aim of rejecting conventions due to his distaste for retinal art – art pleasing to the eye. Some of his works that exemplify the artist’s beliefs include “Bicycle Wheel” and “L.H.O.O.Q”, which caused heavy controversy over their acceptance as art. “Bicycle Wheel” is a readymade – a stool supporting an upside-down bicycle wheel – that the artist has recontextualised as well as displaced its original function. These two actions by Duchamp were his guidelines for transforming an industrial, mass produced object into a work of art, such as his piece “Bicycle Wheel”. Duchamp’s approach to artmaking could almost be considered satirical, as it often mocked the standards established by civil society. This is particularly noticeable in “L.H.O.O.Q”, which is an altered postcard of the Mona Lisa that Duchamp has satirised by drawing a moustache and goatee on the face of this iconic figure. This notion of ‘defacing’ a Da Vinci masterpiece was very shocking to the artworld during the early 20th century, and resulted in a number of artists taking inspiration from these works by Duchamp. One such artist inspired by the work of Duchamp is the post-war American artist, Robert Rauschenberg, whose sculpture “Bed” builds on Duchamp’s concept of the readymade and the rejection of artistic movements. The artwork features a worn pillow, sheet and quilt, assembled and framed on a wall – the artist’s first ‘combine’. This concept is similar to Duchamp’s readymade, except Rauschenberg has attached found and rejected objects to a traditional support, combining painting and sculpture. Not unlike Duchamp, the artist has moved from the sincerity of modernism into a more ironic sphere, with his satirical reference to the movement Abstract Expressionism. Rauschenberg has tarnished “Bed” with pencil and paint, dripping it in a fashion similar to the Abstract Expressionist painter Jackson Pollock. In doing so, the artist is consciously combining the internal emotions of the movement with the stark reality of the bed, the materials belonging to Rauschenberg himself. The artist’s individualistic style is highly recognised in the artworld, especially his contribution to the progression from Abstract Expressionism to Pop Art. In doing so, the artist has become almost as influential as his predecessor, Marcel Duchamp. Another artwork that takes after “Bicycle Wheel” is Rauschenberg’s “First Landing Jump”. The combine titled “First Landing Jump”, shows the artistic exchange of ideas between Duchamp and Rauschenberg with its exploitation of readymade materials and the recontextualisation of function. The work consists of a tyre fixed to a wooden plank covered in a black tarpaulin, with various other found objects such as a number plate and cable. This somewhat poetic composition of everyday items alludes to the idea of jumping into space, hence the name “First Landing Jump”, leaving its interpretation up to the imagination of the audience. This innovative aspect of Rauschenberg’s creative practice was inspired by Duchamp’s iconoclastic approach to art, demonstrated in “Bed” as well as “First Landing Jump”. Similar to “Bicycle Wheel”, Rauschenberg has displaced the function of these objects by placing them in an artistic context. An example of this is the tyre in “First Landing Jump”, which has been skewered with a black and white street barrier, relieving the item of its previous purpose. Rauschenberg’s exploration of Duchamp’s iconic ideas has in turn allowed him to be the inspiration for new artists, adding to the endless cycle of artistic exchange ever-present within the artworld. Another artist that partook in this evolution of artistic ideas was Andy Warhol. American modernist Andy Warhol’s “Mona Lisa” expands on Duchamp’s “L.H.O.O.Q”, which also appropriates Da Vinci’s famous masterpiece. As a leading artist of the 1960s Pop Art movement, Warhol was revolutionary in his appropriation of popular culture. One such example is his repetitive reproduction of the face of high art: The Mona Lisa. Unlike Duchamp, Warhol used a relatively new technique, silkscreening, which was not only much faster than the production of the original, but supported the idea of mass production in art. In doing so, Warhol had portrayed the fame and prestige of the Mona Lisa as a commodity. By altering this appropriated image, Warhol plays with recontextualisation in a similar fashion to Duchamp’s “L.H.O.O.Q”, which the artist altered by drawing a moustache and goatee on a postcard of the Mona Lisa. In defacing a masterpiece, Duchamp’s work makes a direct attack on the standards and conventions of Renaissance art. Warhol takes this idea further than simply rejecting past values in coaxing the audience to question the relationship between culture and the media, and to define the 1960s perception of celebrity. In addition to “Mona Lisa”, Warhol’s work titled “Brillo Box (soap pads)” also stems from the concept of appropriation and the redefining of context. “Brillo Box (soap pads)” captures the philosophies within “L.H.O.O.Q” in its appropriation of images from popular American culture, exploring the idea of combining art and commercialisation. Warhol has used polymer paint and silkscreen ink on plywood to replicate the once mass-produced sales product. In making this decision, Warhol has consciously blurred the line between art and consumerism. This particular concept had a profound impact on the artworld due to its disputed classification as art – categorised by some as ‘merchandise’. The reception of “Brillo Box (soap pads)” was not all that different from the reaction to Duchamp’s “L.H.O.O.Q”, which also questioned the value of art in its alteration of a post card image of the Mona Lisa. The similarities between the thought processes of Marcel Duchamp and Andy Warhol show a distinct exchange in artistic ideas, resulting in profound works which question the established standards of the artworld. The influence of Marcel Duchamp’s ideas and practice has been imprinted in many of the works of later artists, examples being Robert Rauschenberg and Andy Warhol. Both Rauschenberg’s “Bed” and “First Landing Jump” – part of the artist’s collection of combines – build on Duchamp’s concept of the readymade, as displayed in “Bicycle Wheel”. Duchamp’s humorous piece “L.H.O.O.Q” has inspired a genre of artworks that employ the technique of appropriation and recontextualisation, as demonstrated by Warhol’s “Mona Lisa” and “Brillo Box (soap pads)”. In exploring the evolution of these artists and their ideas, the profound impact and importance of artistic exchange becomes clear. Reference List http://www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=81384 http://www.warhol.org/collection/art/work/1998-1-231/ http://www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=81468 http://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/robert-rauschenberg-bed-1955 http://nga.gov.au/Rauschenberg/ http://www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=78712 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/robert-rauschenberg-1815 http://www.biography.com/people/andy-warhol-9523875#death-and-legacy http://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathonkeats/2013/01/17/if-every-artist-were-as-good-as-andy-warhol-forgery-would-be-unnecessary-book-excerpt/ http://news.artnet.com/market/andy-warhols-brillo-boxes-a-series-index-27998 http://www.gallery.ca/en/see/collections/artwork.php?mkey=7249 |