Marcel Duchamp
Father of conceptual art
Most quoted
"Art is the only form of activity in which man as man shows himself to be a true individual. Only in art is he capable of going beyond the animal state, because art is an outlet toward regions which are not ruled by time and space."
— from Session on the Creative Act, 1957
"The creative act is not performed by the artist alone; the spectator brings the work in contact with the external world by deciphering and interpreting its inner qualifications and thus adds his contribution to the creative act."
— from The Creative Act, 1957
"What I have in mind is that art may be bad, good or indifferent, but whatever adjective is used, we must call it art, and bad art is still art in the same way that a bad emotion is still an emotion."
— from Speech, 1957
All quotes by Marcel Duchamp (321)
I am a nihilist, but a happy one.
I have never been a slave to anything.
The world is a stage, and we are all actors.
I am not interested in art for art's sake.
The only true works of art are those that are not made by artists.
I believe in the individual, not in the collective.
The only way to be free is to be indifferent.
I am not a painter, I am a chess player.
The only thing that matters is the present moment.
I have no philosophy, I have only instincts.
The only way to understand life is to live it.
I am not interested in beauty, I am interested in ideas.
The only true revolution is the revolution of the mind.
I don't believe in progress, I believe in change.
The only thing that is constant is change.
I am not a symbolist, I am a realist.
The only way to be original is to be yourself.
I have always been interested in the idea of the readymade.
The only thing that matters is the intention.
I am not a prophet, I am a man.
Contemporaries of Marcel Duchamp
Other Visual Artss born within 50 years of Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968).