Bottle Rack: The Genesis of the Readymade
Bottle Rack 1914
Duchamp’s first readymade sculpture titled Bottle Rack or Bottle Dryer came into existence in 1914. Bottle Rack set the stage for Duchamp’s further readymades in which
he began to integrate elements of humor. The readymade consists of an
unmodified galvanized iron bottle rack accompanied by an inscription. The rack
itself was a common model that could be found in any French flea market or dry
goods store. In regards to the creation of the original 1914 version of Bottle Rack, Duchamp stated: “I just
bought it, at the bazaar of the town hall. The idea of an inscription came as I
was doing it. There was an inscription on the bottle rack which I forget.” The
original readymade met its demise when Duchamp’s sister Suzanne and his
sister-in-law mistook the sculpture for useless junk and threw it away. Perhaps
unaware of the fact that the original readymade had been discarded and/or
forgetful of his alleged original inscription, in January of 1916, while in New
York, Duchamp wrote a letter to his sister Suzanne asking her to “activate” the
readymade sculpture that he had left in his Paris studio. In the letter, he
states:
“Take this bottle rack for yourself. I’m making it a
‘readymade,’ remotely. You are to inscribe it at the bottom and on the inside
of the bottom circle, in small letters painted with a brush in oil, silver
white colour, with an inscription which I will give you herewith, and then sign
it in the same handwriting, as follows: [after] Marcel Duchamp.”
In asking his sister to activate the readymade
sculpture with an inscription, Duchamp introduced an important concept that
would define the remainder of the readymades that he would “produce.” As the
artist, Duchamp took control of the definition of “art” – he had ability to label
an object as “art” simply because he chose it and created a new meaning and
context. With this Duchampian idea in mind, suddenly everything has the
potential to be art. The creation of Bottle
Rack set the stage for the later creation of many more readymades that
incorporated Duchamp’s unique sense of humor.
In Advance of the Broken Arm
In Advance of the Broken Arm 1915
For his next readymade, the 1915 work In Advance of the Broken Arm, Duchamp began
to employ his sense of humor. The readymade consists of a mass manufactured
snow shovel made of wood and galvanized iron. Duchamp purchased the snow shovel
during the winter of 1915 in New York following his emigration to the United
States the same year. The shovel included the inscription “In Advance of the
Broken Arm (from) Marcel Duchamp” on the lower section of its wooden handle. When
signing his name, he was sure to adjust his normal signature to state “(from)
Marcel Duchamp” to emphasize the fact that “though the object came from him it
was not made by him.” When displaying In
Advance of the Broken Arm, Duchamp further defied convention and asserted
that the work be displayed in an unusual context by hanging it from the ceiling.
Inherent in In
Advance of the Broken Arm is Duchamp’s sense of humor. The title of the
work playfully alludes to a scenario in which the title of the readymade comes
to life. Because Duchamp removed the snow shovel from its intended purpose, a
hypothetical snowdrift is without a shovel to clear it. As a result of the lack
of shovel and buildup of snow, someone may fall and break their arm after
slipping on the neglected sidewalk or pathway. Duchamp, employing humorous
wordplay, gave meaning to an everyday, mass manufactured item that
differentiated it from its likenesses. Due to the nature of In Advance of the Broken Arm and other
readymades by Duchamp, they can fairly be mistaken for other mass produced
objects that have not yet been “inscribed” as the artist put it. In one
instance, during a 1964 show in Minnesota, a caretaker mistook In Advance of the Broken Arm for an
actual snow shovel and proceeded to use the readymade to clear a snowdrift
outside of the exhibition space. This amusing anecdote only furthers the comical
aspect of the readymade. Duchamp originally intended for his creations to be
mere slapstick jokes made for his own amusement that often blended into his
studio. The fact that, years down the line, his readymade once again blended
into its surroundings furthers the ongoing comical nature of Duchamp’s
readymades.
Peigne
A prime example of Marcel Duchamp’s use of humor in
his readymades can be found in his 1916 work Peigne or Comb. Despite
its simple form, the readymade demonstrates Duchamp’s humorous use of wordplay
and visual puns. The readymade consists of a metal comb used for grooming dogs
inscribed in white paint with the text (translated to English) “Three or four
drops of height have nothing to do with savagery. Feb. 17 1916 11AM.”
Duchamp uses clever wordplay to demonstrate the
underlying meaning of the appropriated mass manufactured item. Peigne, the title of the readymade,
bears a striking resemblance to the subjunctive tense of the French verb “to
paint,” peindre. Created following
Duchamp’s “abandonment of painting,” the piece makes a clever allusion to the
practice of painting, a form no longer favored by the artist. Despite that fact
that Duchamp abandoned painting, the wordplay alludes to the fact that Duchamp
continues to retain the potential to paint should he choose to.
Furthermore, the use of this pun also alludes to a
theory that Duchamp proposed regarding the relationship between tubes of paint
and readymades. Duchamp states that “Since the tubes of paint used by the
artist are manufactured and ready made products we must conclude that all the
paintings in the world are ‘readymades aided’ and also works of assemblage.” The
use of the comb as a readymade acts a visual pun alluding to Duchamp’s theory
in which all paintings made from manufactured tubes of paint are essentially
what he called “readymades aided.”
In addition, upon the comb is an inscription that is
laced with elements of humor. Again, inscribed on the comb in white paint is
the text (translated to English): “Three or four drops of height have nothing
to do with savagery. Feb. 17 1916 11AM.” Duchamp regarded the creation of a
readymade sculpture as an “a kind of event, something intimately connected with
a moment in time and probably his personal presence.” He wrote in The Green Box in the “Specifications for
Readymades” excerpt that when inscribing a readymade, “the important thing then
is just this matter of timing, this snapshot effect, like a speech delivered on
no matter what occasion but at such and such an hour… naturally inscribe that
date, hour, minute, on the readymade as information.” This being said, the date
inscribed references a date in which Duchamp’s fame as a painter saw a drastic
increase. The date inscribed on Peigne marks
the third anniversary of the 1914 opening of the Armory Show in New York City.
The Armory Show marked the beginning of Duchamp’s fame in the United States
when great controversy arose as the result of his work Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2. Duchamp playfully alludes to
his fame as a painter and his subsequent abandonment of the practice by
referencing the Armory Show in his inscription.
Trébuchet
Trébuchet 1917
“A real coat hanger that I wanted sometime to put on
the wall and hang my things on but I never did come to that – so it was on the
floor and I would kick it every minute, every time I went out - I got crazy
about it and I said the Hell with it, if it wants to stay there and bore me,
I’ll nail it down… and then the association with the Readymade came and it was
that.”
According to Duchamp himself, the very genesis of Trébuchet was
reliant on his sense of humor. As opposed to simply moving the coat rack out of
his way or into storage, Duchamp made a slapstick joke of the situation and
proceeded to nail the object to the floor. Inherent in Trébuchet are a number of
puns that demonstrate Duchamp’s clever, humorous approach to his artistic
process. The piece’s title bears a striking similarity to “trébucher” – the French verb meaning “to
stumble over.” When titling the piece, Duchamp carefully selected his
vocabulary in order to successfully execute the humorous pun. Furthermore, the
piece’s title takes on additional meaning, as the French word trébuchet “is also
chess jargon for a pawn placed to trip an opponent’s piece.” When nailed to the
studio floor, the household item suddenly takes upon a completely new function
and becomes a literal trap for those walking across the floor. Duchamp, an avid
chess player, created further meaning in his piece by using clever wordplay to allude
to a seemingly unrelated topic. At this point in time, Duchamp’s readymades
were simply made for his own amusement, and they often “went unnoticed by his
audience” as they were placed around his studio. In the coming year however,
Duchamp would have the chance to test and challenge the public with the entry
of a readymade into an art exhibition.
Fountain
Fountain 1917
Possibly Duchamp’s most recognized readymade, his 1917
Fountain demonstrates the artist’s
use of humor in his artistic process. Fountain
consists of a porcelain urinal with the text “R. Mutt 1917” painted in
black on its upper side. The Fountain came
into being in early April 1917 when Duchamp, Walter Arensberg, and Joseph
Stella went to the showroom of J.L. Mott Iron Works on Fifth Avenue in New York
City in the hunt to find the perfect subject to “test and provoke the Board of
Directors of the Society of Independent Artists.” Once again, at this point in
time, the “readymades had been little more than a private joke between Duchamp
and his enraptured patron,” however now, the artist had the perfect platform to
introduce and test his idea of the readymade amongst the public. In 1917, a
group of artists involved in the original Armory Show organized an exhibition
with the Society of Independent Artists, Inc., an organization that Duchamp helped
to found. The exhibition, titled “No Jury. NO Prizes. Hung in Alphabetical
Order,” promised to do exactly as the title promised – display works of art
with no judgement. Among the entries for the show was Duchamp’s porcelain urinal
which he submitted under an alias. Despite the fact that the show was labeled
as a “no jury” show, the liberal and open-minded organization were stunned upon
seeing the entry. As expected by Duchamp, his urinal was “censored,” and he
“indignantly resigned” from his position as the chairman of the hanging
committee “charging that the no-jury promise had been violated.” In its
original censored setting in the 1917 Society of Independent Artists show, the
urinal was hidden from view in the show and rotated 90 degrees on its flat side.
If the urinal were to hypothetically be used, urine would pour directly onto
the feet of the user.
When selecting the item with which he would challenge
the Society of Independent Artists, Duchamp chose to make a crude joke by
selecting a urinal as his subject. At this point in time, a urinal was the
furthest thing from what was defined as art – this made it the perfect object
for Duchamp’s stunt. Implying that urine would flow onto the feet of the jurors
and those judging the pieces, he further poked fun at their ridged, judgmental
attitudes. As he challenged the Society of Independent Artists, Inc., Duchamp’s
sense of humor was truly at play. Duchamp pushed his agenda further a few
months after the initial incident when he published a statement defending the
still anonymous Fountain in a
publication called The Blind Man.
Duchamp stated:
“Whether Mr. Mutt with his own hands made the fountain
or not has no importance. He CHOSE it. He took an ordinary article of life,
placed it so that its useful significance disappeared under the new title and
point of view – he created a new thought for the object… as for the plumbing,
that is absurd. The only works of art American has given are her plumbing and
her bridges.”
Even in his defense of the object, he could not help
but include a clever joke at the end of his statement. Following through with
his Fountain stunt and pushing a
valid argument regarding the very meaning of art, Duchamp successfully
challenged the art community with a lighthearted touch.
Furthermore, in exhibition settings, Duchamp was
constantly toying with different humorous contexts to display his readymade.
One scholar remarks that by making slight changes to his work in exhibition
settings, he “sidestepped authorial demand for the creation of new work,
renewing and reinventing an object from his own past with a sleight of hand
that is wittier still for the economy of the gesture.” For example, Duchamp
chose to subvert the iconic positioning of urinal in a 1950 exhibition titled Challenge and Defy at the Sidney Janis
Gallery in New York City. Attaching the urinal to the wall at a children’s
height, he returned to readymade to its intended orientation and therefore
transformed it back into its original, intended form and function. Directly
contradicting the placement in which Fountain
was known for, Duchamp furthered his original joke by once again
challenging the assumptions of the public. Later on in the 1953 exhibition Dada, 1916-1923 held in the same
gallery, Duchamp took the joke a step further. The artist hung Fountain upside down from a doorway and
attached mistletoe to the fixture. With the mistletoe in place, he essentially
invited lovers to kiss while being drenched in hypothetical urine. In a crude,
slapstick joke, the artist shifted the readymade’s placement and added an
additional element to create humor and shock similar to the effect that the
object had 36 years prior.
Paris Air
Duchamp’s ingenious sense of humor yet again presented
itself in his 1919 readymade Paris Air or
Air de Paris (50cc of Paris Air). The
readymade consists of a glass chemist’s ampoule drained of its fluid and
labeled with a tag labeled Sérum
Physiologique or Physiological Serum
in English. While in Paris in 1919, Duchamp decided to bring his friend, art
collector Walter Arensberg a souvenir from his trip. Duchamp stated that
Arensberg “had everything money could buy. So I brought him an ampoule of Paris
air.” Duchamp demonstrated his unique sense of humor in the form of a readymade
gag souvenir for his friend. Playing on the fact that Arensberg was extremely
wealthy, the artist decided to bring him something that money could not buy –
Paris air. In addition, when creating Paris
Air, Duchamp poked fun at modes of scientific classification and research. Sorting
and labeling an everyday object (or substance in this case) as if it were a
subject in a scientific research study, the artists mimics the scientific method
in the form of a slapstick joke.
Conclusion
Ultimately, in addition to challenging notions of the
very definition of “art,” Duchamp’s readymades illustrate his unique sense of
humor. Interweaving his readymade sculptures with elements of humor, Duchamp
creates lighthearted interplay between everyday objects and their new meanings
and contexts. Illustrating the importance of choice that an artist has in
creating work, Duchamp’s readymades play an instrumental role in the modern
canon of Western art history. When considering the often-staunch art world,
artists such as Marcel Duchamp provide a much-needed breath of fresh air using
the language of humor. Duchamp himself said it best: “Humor and laughter – not
necessarily derogatory derision – are my pet tools. This may come from my
general philosophy of never taking the world too seriously – for fear of dying
of boredom.”
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