Intro of Conceptual Art

I would hazard that most art historians would say “Marcel Duchamp is the most influential artist who ever lived”. Maybe that’s true. I don’t disagree with that thought.

There are points in history where things split. Before and after. Like Filippo Brunelleschi and the ‘invention’ of the horizon line in the 15th century. Duchamp did that with The Fountain. The introduction of this piece and the philosophical conversation around it established an entire new wave of thinking that dominated the following century.

However, I don’t think Duchamp is a good artist and I don’t think he had an inkling that the Fountain would cause a tectonic shift. I think Duchamp was an artist who had given up. I think he was invited to a group show and as a joke submitted Fountain. Probably because he didn’t have any work that he was happy with. I read this move by Duchamp as being a farewell gesture of someone who is on the verge of striking out on a new path.

I just don’t think Duchamp meant anything by this work. I think he was done as an artist.

The irony is the rest of the world tried to find some meaning in what Duchamp did and in the act of doing so, the world established Conceptual art as a movement.