A collection of provocative quotations from one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century

Duchamp-isms is a selection of illuminating quotations from Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968), one of the most important figures in the history of modern art. A painter, sculptor, writer, and chess player, Duchamp changed the very definition of art with his “readymades”—everyday objects such as a bicycle wheel or bottle rack that he titled, signed, and presented as art. He provoked critics and the public with works such as the Cubist-Futurist painting Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2 (1912) and Fountain (1917), a readymade composed of a men’s urinal signed “R. Mutt.” Prizing the intellectual over the aesthetic, Duchamp inspired later movements like Minimalism, Conceptualism, and Pop Art. Delightful and witty, Duchamp-isms offers rich insights into the mind of a true icon of modern art.

The quotes in Duchamp-isms, drawn primarily from interviews, have been selected and introduced by Francis Naumann, a leading authority on Duchamp, and organized in eight thematic sections: philosophies of art; painting; Dada and Surrealism; the readymades; chess; literary influences; commercialism in art; and philosophies of life and death. The book also features a brief chronology of Duchamp’s life and career.




“I have always had a horror of being a ‘professional’ painter. The minute you become that, you are lost.”
“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.”
“Art can never be adequately defined, because the translation of an aesthetic emotion into a verbal description is as inaccurate as your description of fear when you have been actually scared.”
“Art never saved the world. It cannot.”